Next year's Budget to be read in March

National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich

The National Treasury plans to have the budget read early to avoid transition uncertainties in implementing the country’s development agenda.

The revised budget calendar, which the Government expects to be replicated in the subsequent election cycles, will see next year’s budget statement read in March as opposed to the customary second week of June.

Speaking when he launched the budget preparation process for financial year 2017/18, Deputy President William Ruto said the revised budget calendar will facilitate preparation of the budget before the next elections.

“This will ensure the Government, and especially the key institutions that are essential in the electoral processes, are well prepared,” said Ruto, who assured investors that the elections will not create a crisis.

Ruto asked the National Treasury to engage Parliament so as to come up with necessary changes to the budget calendar during the election cycle.

For these changes to the budgetary process to be effective, the public finance management Act (PFM) has to be amended. Ruto however cautioned policy-makers not to forget the implementation of the 2016/17 Budget in their excitement to prepare for the 2017/18 budget.

Amendments

According to National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich, the objective of the revised budget calendar is to ensure the 2017/18 Budget is appropriated in good time for smooth operations of the budget before and after the 2017 General Election.

Rotich also warned the principal secretaries and accounting officers gathered at KICC against depleting their resources early as the Government seeks to maintain tight spending besides fulfilling the promises it made to the electorate five years ago.

He said the Cabinet will put ceilings on allocations to different ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).

“The ceilings will be set based on our realistic projections of our revenue performance and our ability to borrow as guided by our debt sustainability analysis.”

As such there will be no scope for additional resources once the ceilings are set, said Rotich. “All accounting officers are therefore required to respect these hard budget constraints and stay within the set ceilings as you compete for resources within your respective sectors.”

Ruto told principal secretaries and accounting officers that there was a new procurement law, which gave them much leeway to act.

“For a long time there has been an excuse that because of the procurement process, the principal secretary and accounting officers don’t have much control as they wished, especially in making sure our programmes are timely and on course,” said Ruto.

He said the bureaucracy that had become part of the procurement process had been removed. He added accounting officers will also be held responsible for any waste in their ministries or departments.