Budget office questions Sh64 billion last minute spending spree

A parliamentary research body has accused the State of riding on the food crisis to go on a last-minute spending spree worth Sh64 billion within days.

The Parliament Budget Office (PBO) has highlighted questionable expenditure items in the 2nd supplementary budget with only 30 days to the end of the current financial year. The 2016-2017 financial year ends on June 30. Only Sh3.7 billion has been allocated to fund the unga subsidy programme while the State plans to spend many times more on “confidential” items.

For instance, for security operations ahead of the elections, Sh3.2 billion has been set aside without justification while Sh1.5 billion will be used to acquire specialised equipment. And in contrast, Sh3.9 billion that should have been spent to recruit additional teachers has not been reallocated.

PBO’s fears about possible loss of funds are informed by the timing of the budgetary changes at the last minute, reminiscent of the activities before the National Youth Service scandal. “There are allocations to boost strategic food reserves and mitigation of army worms,” PBO said in its report with a caution, “However, for a number of items, the additional expenditure is not unforeseen or an emergency”.

Further, most of the new expenditure items were on donor-funded projects, a pointer to an urgency to spend all monies received as grants or donations.

It would come as a shocker for the ordinary taxpayer how the Government keen on implementing austerity measures would allocate colossal amounts on unnecessary expenditure items.

The Government seems to have reduced the target to buy five million bags and is settling for three million, 90kg bags of maize to boost the strategic grain reserves.

Up to Sh6.6 billion will be used for goods and services, including foreign travel and hospitality. About Sh555 million will be used for foreign travel and Sh472 million will be used for hospitality supplies like tea and mandazi.

“There is substantial increase in areas of austerity such as domestic travel training and hospitality, printing and advertisement despite Treasury’s directive,” the PBO noted.

Some of the spending has been masked in mystery, with security spending being used to cover up what exactly is being bought. A confidential spend of Sh962 million has been set aside and the National Intelligence Service has received an additional Sh900 million without justification.

PBO has also highlighted that the dubious increases on allocations do not match with bigger targets. In one instance, there is an allocation for recruitment of more police officers ahead of the August general elections while the recruitment targets for the line ministry have not been reviewed. “The State Department of Interior has an increment of Sh523 million but the targets in terms of milestones achieved, number of motorcycles and motor vehicles procured has been revised downwards. It is not clear why the increased allocation is required,” the budget office noted.

“An additional Sh3.7 billion for recruitment and training of police officers as well as enhanced security operations ahead of the 2017 General Election cannot clearly be traced to the budget books,” the budget office noted.