State House is top beneficiary of Sh70bn budget

State House is among five entities that received the highest share of the Sh70.41 billion that the Treasury released to Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) in the first six months of the current financial year.

The Controller of Budget (CoB) Margaret Nyakang’o told the National Assembly’s Finance and National Planning committee on Thursday that the State House received Sh5.86 billion or 56.5 percent of the total budget of Sh9.84 billion.

The CoB said the State Department for Labour and Social Protection received the highest development exchequer issues of Sh1.1 billion or 91.2 percent of the total budget of Sh1.9 billion.

The State Department for Youth Affairs received Sh1.79 billion (52 percent) of the Sh3.44 billion budget while the Trade Department got Sh830 million or 50 percent of the total development budget of Sh1.94 billion.

Dr Nyakang’o said the Treasury only released Sh70.41 billion or 15.4 percent of the total development spending to MDAs of Sh783.22 billion in the six months December 2023.

The CoB said the 81 MDAs were expected to have received 50 percent of the Sh783.22 billion development budget in the first six months of the financial year 2023/24.

On the recurrent expenditure, Dr Nyakang’o said the Treasury released Sh561 billion or 41.2 percent of the revised recurrent estimates over the six months.

The Treasury allocated Sh1.68 trillion for ministerial recurrent expenditures and the MDAs were expected to have received Sh840 billion in the first six months of the financial year.

Dr Nyakang’o told the committee chaired by Molo MP Kuria Kimani that the total exchequer issues to MDAs for the period July to December 2023 was Sh631.41 billion or 34.7 percent of the total MDAs revised estimates.

“Only Sh70.41 billion out of Sh783.22 billion set aside for development in the current budget has been released to MDAs,” Dr Nyakang’o said while giving the status of the Budget Implementation Review Report for the six months of the financial year 2023/24.

“However, we have other sources of development expenditure that are outside the exchequer including development partners support and appropriations-in-aid.”

Dr Nyakang’o said the total spending on development outside the exchequer releases is Sh197.41 million out of the projected amount of Sh457 billion which represents an absorption rate of 15 percent.

Dr Nyakang’o said the General, Economic and Commercial Affairs sector received the highest proportion of the exchequer issues to the revised net estimates at 38.1 percent while the Environment-Protection-Water and Natural Resources (EPW&NR) sector received the lowest at 3.9 percent.

She said five MDAs received over 50 percent of the proportion of exchequer issues to revised net estimates, 11 did not receive any exchequer for the six months while 19 received below 10 percent of the proportion of the exchequer issues to revised net estimates.

“The 11 State departments that received zero development budget allocation from the Treasury in the first six months include Shipping and Maritime, Culture and Heritage, Mining, Petroleum, State Law Office, the Judiciary, office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, National Land Commission, Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, National Gender and Equality Commission and the office of the Auditor General,”

Dr Nyakang’o said.“These entities had a development budget but got zero money from the national Treasury. This has a big impact on their development plans in the period under review.”

Dr Nyakang’o said a review of the MDAs recurrent exchequer issues shows that the Governance, Justice, Law and Order (GJLO) sector received the highest percentage of exchequer issues to the revised estimates at 48.86 percent.

In comparison, Dr Nyakang’o said the Education sector received the lowest proportion at 37.8 percent.She said 12 MDAs received the proportion of the exchequer issues to revised net estimates at over 50 percent while eight received exchequer issues at below 30 percent.

Dr Nyakang’o said tax revenue recorded a performance of 42.1 percent of the target of Sh2.5 trillion compared to 46 percent or Sh2.07 recorded in a similar period in 2022/23.  

“Other domestic financing recorded the highest performance of 111.1 percent of the annual projection,” she said.

The National Treasury was allocated a gross budget of Sh3.67 trillion in the supplementary budget 2023/24 out of which Sh783.22 billion is for development and Sh1.68 trillion is recurrent expenditure. Consolidated Fund Services was set at Sh2.08 trillion.

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