𝗠𝗼𝗻𝗱𝗮𝘆, 𝗙𝗲𝗯𝗿𝘂𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝟮𝟲, 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟰 

The Departmental Committee on Finance and National Planning last week conducted deliberations on the 2024 Budget Policy Statement (BPS) while scrutinizing budget absorption rates and the respective programs' implementation statuses.

 The deliberations with State Departments and Government agencies that the Hon. Kuria Kimani- led Committee oversights, kicked off with the State Department of National Treasury making its submissions on the document.

 On Friday last week, the State Department of Economic Planning and the Semi-Autonomous Government agencies under the Department including the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, the National Government- Constituency Development Fund Board, the Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis(KIPPRA) among others appeared before the Committee.

 The Chairperson of the Commission on Revenue Allocation, Ms. Mary Wanyonyi and the Controller of Budget, FPCA, (Dr.) Margaret Nyakang’o also made their presentations.

 The State Department for Economic Planning(SDEP) led by Principal Secretary James Muhati made a case for enhanced allocation, noting that the current budget gaps in the Department had the potential to hamper the implementation of their priority programs.

 PS Muhati told the Committee that the SDLP’s requirement for the FY 2024/25 amounts to Kshs.74.447bn; Kshs.6.957bn being recurrent while the balance; Kshs. 67.490billion is for Development Estimates.

 He expressed concern that the SDEP has been allocated Kshs.69.294 billion (Kshs.174 billion for recurrent and Kshs.65.119 billion for development) creating a funding gap of Kshs.5.135billion.

 “Hon. Chairperson, I would like to appeal to this Committee to consider enhancing our allocation. The current funding gap will negatively impact the implementation of the State Department’s priority programs”, he urged.

 Some of the priority programs that the PS pointed out include the recruitment of technical staff as per the authorized establishment, the execution of capacity building programmes, tooling and equipment of staff and the purchase of motor vehicles for Monitoring and Evaluation activities.

 Members questioned officials from the State Department over the low absorption of the budget in some areas.

 Hon. Kimani sought to know what the Department was doing to enhance its revenue collection under appropriations-in-aid.

 “This is the fourth budget where we are raising the matter of absorption of the budget under the vote allocated for recruitment of staff. Now that you have said that the Public Service Commission (PSC) has given you the go-ahead to recruit staff, I ask you to finish this process by the time we are considering the Supplementary Estimates II or we shall reallocate the monies to other deserving sectors”, Hon. Kimani said.

 Asked what plans the State Department had put in place to roll out the Fourth Medium Term Plan (MTP-4), the Third one having expired, PS Muhati revealed that the Cabinet had already considered and approved MTP-4 and it was only awaiting the official launch.

 He told the Committee that the plan had largely guided the preparation of the BPS.

 On her part, the Chairperson of the Commission for Revenue Allocation Ms. Mary Wanyonyi, appealed to the Committee to enhance the Commission’s budget to facilitate the completion of an assessment on the impact of devolution on service delivery which has already been undertaken in 24 counties, with 23 remaining.

 The exercise is expected to inform the development of the fourth revenue-sharing basis among county governments.

 According to Ms. Wanyonyi, the Commission needs a budgetary enhancement of Kshs.368.14mn towards their planned activities.

 The approved allocation is Kshs.587.32million against a resource requirement of Kshs.955.45million.

 While also making a case for budget enhancement, the Controller of Budget, Dr. Margaret Nyakan’go, pointed out that the implementation of the 2024 BPS would be dependent on her office to roll out some key policies.

 These include the policy on the management of pending bills currently standing at Kshs.538.83 billion and Kshs.156.34 billion at the national and county levels respectively.

 The others are the implementation of the policy on the management of public sector wage which has been identified as one of the key fiscal consolidation targets to be pursued by the government, and the policy on the implementation of development projects.

 Dr. Nyakang’o told the lawmakers that her office would be seeking the Committee’s approval for additional funding amounting to Kshs. 147.1 million earmarked for some critical unfunded economic items.

 The lawmakers are set to review the submissions and make recommendations to the Budget and Appropriations Committee while considering the requests made by the agencies.

 At the same time, Dr. Nyakang’o is expected to meet the Committee in the coming weeks to take the lawmakers through the Budget Implementation and Monitoring for the first half of the Financial Year 2023/24.