Economy

Public wages rise to Sh378 billion

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Agnes Odhiambo, the Controller of Budget. FILE PHOTO | NMG

The Treasury spent Sh377.7 billion on salaries and allowances for public servants in the year to June 2017, a new report shows.

That level of expenditure represents 11 per cent growth over the previous financial year. The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) took the lion’s share of the amount having paid Sh216.5 billion or 57.3 per cent of the total personnel emoluments spent by Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of government.

“This could be explained by the fact that the bulk of TSC’s budget is for teachers’ salaries,” Agnes Odhiambo, the Controller of Budget, said in the latest report of the annual National Government Budget Implementation Review Report for the financial year 2017/18.

The second highest expenditure item was recurrent transfers to semi-autonomous government agencies (SAGA’s) at Sh364.4 billion, or 36 per cent of the total recurrent expenditure.

“Other categories with significant expenditure include domestic travel (Sh8.6 billion) and rentals and rates for non-residential buildings at Sh6 billion,” Ms Odhiambo said in the report tabled in Parliament by Leader of Majority Aden Duale.

Ms Odhiambo said analysis of recurrent expenditure by MDAs shows that Sh961.9 billion was spent on recurrent expenditure programmes representing 90.3 per cent of the revised gross budget estimates, a 12.1 per cent growth from Sh858.3 billion recorded in the same period of the financial year 2016/17.

Ms Odhiambo said the total expenditure for the MDAs amounted to Sh1.97 trillion, a slight increase from Sh1.96 trillion spent in the previous financial year.

The Treasury also spent Sh176.5 billion less on development in the last financial year compared to the previous year.

Ms Odhiambo asked the MDAs to work closely with the Treasury to enhance budget implementation.