The Controller of Budget (CoB), Dr. Margaret Nyakang’o, has raised serious concerns over the government’s wasteful expenditure, pointing out that more than Ksh.9.5 billion has been spent on both domestic and foreign travel in the current financial year.
Appearing before the National Assembly Committee on Public Debt and Privatization on Friday, Nyakang’o criticized the government’s prioritization of non-essential spending, stating that such wasteful practices are contributing to Kenya’s widening budget deficit and increasing debt servicing pressure.
“I was lucky to attend an ICPAK trip in Turkey last year. The entire room was full of Kenyans being facilitated by another Kenyan. You wonder, couldn’t they have done this in Mombasa instead of flying to Istanbul?” she questioned, highlighting the extravagance involved in government travel.
Beyond travel, Nyakang’o noted that the government has already paid Ksh.770.5 million in loan commitment fees within the first nine months of the 2024/25 financial year. These fees, she explained, are largely a result of poor planning, where funds are secured before projects are ready for implementation.
“We sign loans before implementers are ready. Then they are surprised when told money is available. This misalignment results in idle funds and unnecessary costs,” she explained.
Nyakang’o warned that if the government does not rein in such inefficiencies, Kenya risks defaulting on its debt obligations. She proposed that transitioning to the Treasury Single Account (TSA) could lead to substantial savings and reduce the need for external borrowing.
She also flagged rising salary and allowance expenditures, projected to grow from Ksh.4.08 billion to Ksh.4.67 billion, even as disbursement of pensions and gratuities remains below target. Only Ksh.115 billion has been disbursed so far against a planned Ksh.223 billion.
“Whenever there’s revenue from KRA for critical payments like pensions, we get multiple urgent requests under Article 223 for unbudgeted expenditures,” she lamented.
To address these issues, the CoB is calling for comprehensive debt audits to guide future borrowing and repayment decisions, emphasizing the need for fiscal discipline and prudent public finance management.
