Drama as Margaret Nyakango Releases Detailed Report Exposing Ruto Govt
Margaret Nyakango, the Controller of Budget, who recently faced arrest and charges related to attempted forgery and operating an unlicensed Sacco, has offered detailed insights into the inflation of salaries by the National Treasury.
The Budget Implementation Review Report, available on Kenyans.co.ke, also points out that these salary exaggerations occurred during the initial three months (July to September) of the implementation of President William Ruto’s Ksh3 trillion budget.
Before the report, Nyakang’o had exclusively revealed discrepancies in her own salary. However, she now asserts that the mishandling of funds extends across different offices.
Additionally, the allowances for several specified officers were disbursed in excess of the prescribed limits established by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC).
The report did not specifically identify the particular officers whose salaries were inflated.
“When budget rationalisation is necessary, it should be based on the previously approved Program-Based Budget and the desired outputs and outcomes that the government wants to reduce, eliminate, or delay for future financial periods. The known expenditures should be budgeted as per the actual figures without exaggeration,” read the report in part.
Regardless, Nyakang’o claimed that the Treasury must ensure accuracy in the budgeting process to present a realistic depiction of the government’s expenditure on employee salaries.
“The Controller of Budget recommends prioritising budget cuts for non-essential expenditures, inefficient programmes and projects with a low socio-economic impact. Specifically, reducing allocations to non-critical infrastructure projects, streamlining administrative costs, and optimising subsidies through targeted interventions can help minimise deficit financing and promote fiscal sustainability.
“The National Treasury should ensure the budget is as realistic as possible. In the meantime, appropriate reallocations should be made through a supplementary budget to avoid over and under-budgeting,” Nyakang’o recommended.
Treasury Reaction
In a recent interview on Spice FM last month, Treasury CS Njunguna Ndung’u underscored that budget estimates serve as a framework for the expenditure of various officers, acknowledging challenges in accurately predicting certain elements, such as the precise number of travels, during the drafting stage.
Nevertheless, he rejected the insinuations that funds were misappropriated.
“For instance, for my travel, I have specific non-travels, which could be 3-4. But the others come in because of duty requirements. In a sense, they do not know how much I will travel, and they will put in an estimate.
“At the end year, they look and what you spent then they also put in an estimate,” he explained.
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Drama as Margaret Nyakango Releases Detailed Report Exposing Ruto Govt
