On cutting expenditure and getting budget priorities right to reduce fiscal deficit, as has just been issued in a circular, the government is doing the right thing considering that the President has warned the country that it is the season of tightening belts.
Unfortunately, the Treasury’s latest communication on tight approvals for new projects, resource allocations, and giving priority to Agenda Four pillars sounds familiar and predictable. The country is yet to see people who breach these guidelines punished.
Although the Treasury secretary Henry Rotich says request for more allocations will be tied to project performance reviews (PPR), it should be noted that cutting spending should be holistic and gaps closed in the usual porous areas like hospitality, what the Auditor-General calls ‘secret accounts’ and training.
Ideally, such reports mean very little to the taxpayer if they are not acted upon and offenders punished for non-compliance and imprudence. Hundreds of millions of shillings are sunk or lost annually against the caps set by, for example, the Controller of Budget. Those who breach the controls ought to be punished for these warnings to have meaning and leave impact in service delivery.
Indeed, Kenyans should feel the impact of the more than Sh6 billion budget proposed for monitoring and evaluation, a function that should help the country in judging whether or not the expenditure priorities and budget controls are working.
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Note: The results are not exact but very close to the actual.
