Ministries’ allowances spend up 62 percent despite austerity push

Government offices have defied austerity drive to raise expenditure on salaries and allowances by 62 percent to Sh315 billion in nine months to March.

Data by the Controller of Budgets shows this was a Sh121.1 billion rise from the Sh194.6 billion spent by the 71 government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) in a similar period the previous year.

The rise comes amid an austerity push by the National Treasury to cut down on perks like allowances in efforts to free up cash for development and essential services such as health and education.

The expenditure includes basic salaries for permanent employees, wages for temporary workers, personal allowances paid as part of salary and employer contributions to compulsory national social security schemes.

“The total expenditure under personnel emoluments was Sh315.8 billion, with the Teachers’ Service Commission (TSC) recording the highest amount under this category at Sh181.7 billion,” said Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakang’o in a report. The spending by TSC represented 57.7 percent of the total expenditure on personnel emoluments and is a Sh3.9 billion increase from the Sh177.8 billion spent at a similar period the previous year. The TSC is the single-biggest State employer with 317,069 registered teachers on the government payroll as of June last year.

During the nine months, the Interior ministry recorded the sharpest rise in spending on salaries and perks at Sh59.3 billion a growth of 22 percent from Sh48.5 billion in a similar period in the 2018/19 financial year.

The data shows spending by the Parliamentary Service Commission increased more than five times to Sh2.6 billion from the Sh446 million spent the previous year.