MPs tear into Uhuru’s budget plan

By David Ochami

Parliament’s Budget Committee has dismissed Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta’s projections for the next financial year as unrealistic in a scathing attack on his inaugural March 23 Budget Policy Statement.

A report of the Budget Committee chaired by Maragwa MP Elias Mbau accused Uhuru of ignoring the Planning Ministry during the preparation of the policy statement. They also criticised him of raising false hopes that contradict the Fiscal Management Act of 2009.

"...the underlying macroeconomic strategy and policy expenditure is weak. As a result, projections into the future in particular development may be unrealistic," the report tabled in Parliament Thursday said in part.

Several ministries that contributed to the report, such as the Education, crititicised Uhuru for allocating little or no money for employment of teachers on permanent basis or upgrade of newly created university colleges.

The report also accuses the minister of failing to provide a link between policies created by the Planning Ministry and his own planning and projections in the Budget Policy Statement.

"As a result, the programme annex has no linkage to the strategic plans of ministries and does not have relevant outputs and indicators that are monitorable," says Mbau’s report that also accuses the minister of fostering policies opposed to poverty reduction and the UN’s Millenium Development Goals.

In last months Budget Policy Statement, Uhuru said Kenya’s economy was projected to grow by 4.9 per cent in the next financial year, according to forecast laid in Parliament by the deputy Finance minister Dr Oburu Odinga in fulfillment of new standing orders of the House and the Fiscal Management Act 2009.

The Finance minister projected a budget deficit of Sh153 billion with Sh51.6 billion of 1.8 per cent of the total budget expected from foreign funding.

Some 3.6 per cent or Sh11.9 billion will be financed through domestic borrowing. The statement showed that expansion of the private sector will contribute significantly to growth as the CBK pursues a monetary policy targeted at low inflation.