The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) is on the spot over a budget of Sh496 Million that was presented to Parliament's Budget and Appropriations Committee, aimed at catering for an internal auditing exercise expected to prune off corrupt persons from the tax authority.
The budget, which was highlighted in the Employment Suitablity Assessment (ESA) programme, plans to award nine panelists a total of Sh59.4 Million for sitting allowances, Sh4.8 Million for air tickets for both panelists and 15 secretariat officials, Sh9 Million for travel allowances and Sh5 Million would be spent on daily allowances. Another Sh5,000 would be spent on daily airtime for each secretariat staff, Sh50 Million on court cases that would arise from the vetting while Sh30 Million set to pay employees that would be sacked upon completion of the process.
With National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich having recently announced the plan by the state to cut back on non-priority expenditures in all parastatals, KRA is in a fix after having set the auditing budget at Sh100 Million to buy scanners, printers and photocopiers. A further Sh30 Million would be spent on computers and i-Pads, while Sh10 Million on new furniture for the process.
The exercise which is set to be conducted over a period of 220 days, will see all employees of the parastatal grilled for a realisation of the supposed drop in KRA performance.
The taxman collected Sh1 Trillion over the 2014/15, lower than the Sh1.086 Trillion target. Economists termed it as the slowest growth rate recorded in the last 10 years.
Speaking during the 2015 National Taxpayers Day in October, President Uhuru Kenyatta ordered for the immediate staff vetting process to put a stop to corruption within KRA.
The auditing which would determine suitability of employment of each member of staff, will also lead to the dismissal of several employees found with irregularities.
