The government has proposed broad measures to tame its runaway expenditure even as it seeks to increase revenue streams to meet its development agenda.
The Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury, Henry Rotich says in the draft 2015 budget policy statement that even though gains were made towards achieving development in the previous year, more needs to be done.
“Based on the outcome of the first half of the FY2014/2015, more will need to be done to expand revenue effort, contain and re-orient expenditures towards priority capital and entrench expenditure efficiency through cost benchmarking,” reads the statement.
While noting that rationalization of the Civil Service- often accused of bloating the wage bill by drawing many allowances is progressing well- the document calls for more measures to improve efficiency and effectiveness in public resource utilization. Going forward, it says the Treasury will rationalize expenditures to identify and eliminate expenditure overlaps and wastage.
Among the measures that the Treasury is proposing to rein in on the expenditures at the ministerial level is a stricter monitoring with departmental heads being required to make regular reports.
The Treasury also intends to institute a strict leasing policy that encourages up to 40 per cent outsourcing of local content in all ministries to cut back on spending. It says this will also serve the dual purpose of spurring industrialization. And it has not been lost on the exchequer that corruption is a big factor holding back the government’s ambitious development programme. Mr Rotich says the Treasury is working with other government agencies to develop plans to tame it.
“EACC will develop by end of May a measurable time bound Governance Action Plan setting specific prioritized governance and anticorruption interventions. In addition EACC will spearhead the development of the Kenya Integrity Programme,” he says.
The budget policy statement is published in accordance with section 25 of the Public Finance Management Act 2012. The law requires the Cabinet Secretary to set out the broad strategic priorities and policy goals that will guide the national and county governments in preparing their budgets both for the following year and over the medium term.
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