Controller of Budget, Margaret Nyakango, who was recently arrested and charged with attempted forgery and operating a Sacco without a licence, has provided intricate details into the exaggerations of salaries by the National Treasury.
In the Budget Implementation Review Report accessed by Kenyans.co,ke, it was also highlighted that the exaggerations were witnessed in the first three months (July to September) of President William Ruto's Ksh3 trillion budget implementation.
Prior to the report, Nyakang'o had only exposed exaggerations to her salary and now claims that the mismanagement of funds cut across various offices.
On the other hand, the allowances of various stated officers were also paid beyond the set amounts stipulated by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC).
However, the specific officers whose salaries were exaggerated were not highlighted.
"When budget rationalisation is necessary, it should be based on the previously approved Program-Based Budget and the desired outputs and outcomes that the government wants to reduce, eliminate, or delay for future financial periods. The known expenditures should be budgeted as per the actual figures without exaggeration," read the report in part.
Nonetheless, Nyakang'o alleged that the Treasury needed to be accurate during the budgeting process to provide a realistic view of the amount the government was spending to pay workers.
"The Controller of Budget recommends prioritising budget cuts for non-essential expenditures, inefficient programmes and projects with a low socio-economic impact. Specifically, reducing allocations to non-critical infrastructure projects, streamlining administrative costs, and optimising subsidies through targeted interventions can help minimise deficit financing and promote fiscal sustainability.
"The National Treasury should ensure the budget is as realistic as possible. In the meantime, appropriate reallocations should be made through a supplementary budget to avoid over and under-budgeting," Nyakang'o recommended.
Treasury Response
During an interview on Spice FM last month, Treasury CS Njunguna Ndung'u emphasised that budget estimates are usually used for the expenditure of various officers as certain elements, such as the exact number of travel cannot be accounted for during drafting.
However, he refuted the aspersions that money was misappropriated.
"For instance, for my travel, I have specific non-travels, which could be 3-4. But the others come in because of duty requirements. In a sense, they do not know how much I will travel, and they will put in an estimate.
"At the end year, they look and what you spent then they also put in an estimate," he explained.
