Treasury PS Kamau Thugge during a Public Accounts Committee hearing on Anglo Leasing contracts at Parliament Buildings in Nairobi last year. PHOTO | DIANA NGILA
What you need to know:
Treasury PS Kamau Thugge on Tuesday appealed to the Budget and Appropriations Committee not to alter the budget ceilings, saying the government is constrained by resources.
Parliament will increase budgetary allocation to the anti-corruption agency and the office of Auditor -General in the year starting July to strengthen the war on graft amid opposition from the Treasury.
The Budget and Appropriations Committee on Tuesday said the budget ceilings for the key anti-corruption agencies would be increased amid the push by the public auditor and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) for more resources.
The committee did not give the expected allocation, but is expected to table its report on the 2015/16 budget policy statement this afternoon.
Treasury PS Kamau Thugge appealed to the committee not to alter the budget ceilings, saying the government is constrained by resources.
“If you look at the A-G and EACC budgets for the last three financial years, they have been on the increase. In fact we raised the auditors budget by 160 per cent in the last two years,” Dr Thugge said.
“We had to bring here a supplementary budget to cater for the huge financial gap. We faced a Sh57 billion shortfall and we couldn’t cut salaries.”
High level corruption has reared its ugly head in State agencies, even as the public awaits the first conviction from the EACC, which has in recent months been threatening to prosecute old and new graft cases.
Committee chairman Mutava Musyimi told the Treasury officials led by Dr Thugge that the worrying levels of misappropriation in counties and government agencies cannot be allowed to go on.
“We have watched the very worrying levels of misappropriation in counties. We are persuaded as a committee that the counties must be audited and the only way to do this is to empower to office of the auditor-general Edward Ouko,” said Mr Musyimi when the committee listened to the Treasury’s final submissions on the Budget Policy Statement.
The document outlines how ministries will be allocated funds to run government services in the next fiscal year.
“The auditor must get additional funding to audit the 47 county governments. Going through this policy document, we don’t get the sense that you factored in money for audit in the devolved level,” the Mbeere South MP said.
“We told Mr Matemu in no uncertain terms that we want the talk on the fight against corruption stopped. We have heard enough talking. We want to see people behind bars.”
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