IEBC in trouble as Treasury CS Henry Rotich slashes its Sh45 billion budget

IEBC chairman Isaack Hassan flanked by his CEO Ezra Chiloba, addresses the press at the end of a two-day workshop for political parties in Naivasha. [PHOTO: FILE/STANDARD]

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission’s (IEBC) multi-billion shilling plan for the next General Election faces a serious financial setback.

The National Treasury has proposed major budget cuts giving IEBC only two-thirds of the Sh45 billion they had requested to manage the elections.

National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich has drafted the spending plan for the next three financial years, which shows the Commission will only access Sh31 billion ahead of next year’s elections.

In its Election Operation Plan, for the 2017 polls, IEBC said it needs at least Sh45 billion, but the mandarins at the National Treasury feel that budget is over the top.

Amid the fiscal strain on revenues and the missed revenue targets in the current financial year, the new allocations for the IEBC are an indication from the National Treasury that the election managers should prepare for budget cuts.

Mr Rotich said the Government is keen to ensure the Commission doesn’t lack money to do its crucial job of managing the competitive national polls, which is 18 months away.

“The Government shall also continue to fund the IEBC to manage the electoral process for free and fair elections. This will ensure accountability as well as stability and lack of violence which are crucial for development of our country,” Rotich said in the draft Budget Policy Statement released yesterday.

The key trouble for the IEBC is that the National Treasury has said nothing about the proposal to have all the money for the General Election accessed in the next financial year (2016/17). Rotich has simply prepared a budget that gives the IEBC Sh14.5 billion in the year ending June 30, 2017 and Sh17 billion in the year ending June 30, 2018.

The date for the General Election for an estimated 22 million eligible voters is August 8, next year.

Now, the worry for the IEBC, a concern also echoed by the head of the country’s bicameral Legislature, Speaker Justin Muturi, is that if the money is not released in the current financial year, campaign politics could ruin the budget process and the schedule for buying election materials.

The Speaker said, because the next financial year ends on June 30, 2017 and Parliament will stand dissolved on June 8, 2017 as by law, then there was a danger that the 2017 national budget will not be ready in time for the money to be released to buy ballot papers, pay suppliers for distribution of polling material and run the polls.

The Executive

In fact, Mr Muturi said, it will be difficult to get the quorum to approve the budget estimates because of the reality that most MPs will be out on campaigns.

“There is a real possibility of the 2017-2018 budget being done single-handedly by the Executive without undergoing the constitutional checks in Parliament due to the fact that the elections are due on August 8, 2017 and Parliament will stand dissolved 60 days before then,” Muturi told The Standard on Sunday.

He added: “It will also be difficult in an election year to get requisite quorum to pass serious agenda in Parliament during the last quarter of the election year, since members will be busy on the ground battling for re-election”.

The IEBC will now have to lobby MPs to make the budget in the current financial year so that they prepare adequately.

The National Treasury Principal Secretary Kamau Thugge said the public is free to check the draft Budget Policy Statement (BPS) and give feedback within the next three days. Thereafter, the final version of the proposal will be submitted to the National Assembly for review and adoption.

The negotiations for more cash for the IEBC and the schedule of disbursement have to be done at this stage, and for Speaker Muturi, the priority for the MPs is to quickly reconstitute the Budget and Appropriations Committee whose mandate expires when the MPs resume after recess on February 9.

The BPS will be with the MPs on or before February 15 as per the law.

IEBC chairman Issack Hassan and his chief executive Ezra Chiloba had both said the money has to be released in the next financial year, so that come the election year, they will be ready to roll.

Their reasons for early disbursements are captured in the EOP: “In the run up to 2013 General Election, the sourcing and management of funds had serious implications on elections operations...”

They had also said they will need the money early to get time to beat the red-tape associated with the electronic procurement through the Integrated Financial Management Information Systems.

Going by the government budgetary cycle, the earliest the implementation of EOP activities can begin is August 2016, a year to the General Election.