End the wasteful spending on travel by civil servants

What you need to know:

Spending by civil servants on local and foreign trips has been singled out by almost all Finance ministers yet it is one expenditure that keeps rising, to the annoyance of Kenyan taxpayers.
The pandemic showed that meetings can be comfortably held through video-conferencing without one having to pay for an air ticket and accommodation in an expensive hotel, among other expenses.
The billions of shillings being spent carelessly show that the officials are back to their old habit of blatantly wasting and embezzling money through per diems and allowances to increase monthly earnings.

For the longest time, the government has been looking for ways to cut non-essential expenditure, but the one thing that stands out is travel.

Spending by civil servants on local and foreign trips has been singled out by almost all Finance ministers yet it is one expenditure that keeps rising, to the annoyance of Kenyan taxpayers.

Why do government officials need to spend Sh1 billion a month on travelling to work in hotels in Mombasa, or Naivasha yet the same ministries and departments have boardrooms in their offices? Why is it so hard for officials to work from the offices?

The pandemic showed that meetings can be comfortably held through video-conferencing without one having to pay for an air ticket and accommodation in an expensive hotel, among other expenses.

But just after travel and social gatherings ban were lifted as the pandemic waned, data from the Controller of Budget shows that officials spent Sh5.97 billion on local trips in the six months ended December.

The billions of shillings being spent carelessly show that the officials are back to their old habit of blatantly wasting and embezzling money through per diems and allowances to increase monthly earnings.

Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani had said that non-core expenditure would be reviewed to ensure the government makes savings and funds its development programmes without relying too much on debt.

Trips, training, and maintenance of cars were to be reduced drastically, yet they have increased. Members of Parliament seem to be the most wasteful, having spent Sh1.96 billion on travel followed by the Interior ministry at Sh761 million.

This is not a new thing. Last October, MPs’ spending on foreign trips hit a historic high in the three months to June, highlighting their renewed appetite for overseas tours following the easing of Covid-19 travel restrictions.

The Members of the National Assembly and Senators splashed Sh703.1 million on foreign trips in the three months — the highest quarterly spending since Kenya started making public travel spending in 2013.

The government needs to channel the money being wasted on travel to more worthy projects.