The Departmental Committee on Finance and National Planning and the Select Committees on Public Debt and Privatization and Budget and Appropriations held a joint retreat with the National Treasury and Economic Planning.

The retreat covered key issues including revenue management, fiscal risks management and county public finance management; public investment and portfolio management; and public private partnerships (PPPs).

Members engaged Treasury officials by asking  questions based on their presentations including the viability of PPPs, buyback processes, efficient use of money borrowed, road annuity fund, pension payouts, public universities funding, asset register, external debt stock, the debt anchor, undisbursed loans, equity in distribution of loans among others.

The Cabinet Secretary for National Treasury and Economic Planning, Prof. Njuguna Ndung’u thanked the Members of Parliament for having made time to attend the retreat and learn more about the operations of the two State Departments in his Ministry. He further called on the Members to offer his Ministry necessary support.

“We are happy you managed to pass the debt anchor threshold. The privatization law is with you and with this law, we want to have diverse ways of privatization. It is for you to interrogate each solution.” said Prof. Ndung’u.

The Principal Secretary Dr. Chris Kiptoo in his remarks shared the scorecard for the National Treasury so far.

“We closed the year with the least number of pending bills in nine years and we have made every effort to fully pay up our debt service. Going forward, we have directed all Ministries, Departments and Agencies to prioritize payments of pending bills for Financial Year 2023/2024 before embarking on any expense”, said Dr. Kiptoo.

The sessional Chair Hon. Abdi Shurie thanked the Treasury for the valuable knowledge they shared in the sessions and called upon them to work together to strengthen coordination.