Avoid wasteful spending in State departments

Finance Minister Njeru Githae is unhappy with the way ministries and Government departments have been using money allocated for development.

This week, Mr Githae, who spoke during the official launch of the 2013/2014-2015/2016 medium term expenditure framework budget-making, told those charged with managing Government funds to avoid allocating resources to wasteful and non-productive expenditure.

Githae’s concerns on carefree spending in Government are genuine. It is no secret that some individuals given the responsibility of protecting money released by the Treasury to their ministries have done little to safeguard the accounts. Some have directed Government funds amounting to millions of shillings to shady projects. In some instances, the concerned officers get kickbacks through such dubious ventures.

In other instances, heads of various Government departments have squandered the authority-to-incur expenditure allocated to various ministries and Government departments. For instance, money is paid for non-existent trips, repairs and purchases. Plunder of Government resources has continued even in departments where there are internal auditors who are supposed to check on such frauds. As Githae said, it is no longer sustainable to fund the country’s development programmes through borrowing and donor support.

It is sad that while we spread out our begging bowels to donors, some Government officers do little to ensure such funds are well used. We urge Githae and his team to ensure the culprits are prosecuted.