CS Henry Rotich and the Treasury are on the spot over hiding Kenya’s true budget deficit by using wrong figures.
The revelation of how the Treasury is blindfolding Kenyans has been told by the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO).
The Treasury is said to be masking the true deficit by using a set of numbers that ignores adjustments.
The office also accused Treasury of overshooting the budget ceiling given by Parliament and approved through its own Budget Policy Statement (BPS), which is prepared months in advance. The PBO says the 2019/2020 budget is higher than the approved ceiling by Sh78 billion.
The PBO says that the Big Four agenda programmes account for approximately 14.6 per cent of the total budget.
The bulk of these resources (Sh374.1 billion) is for implementation of the enablers while Sh76.1 billion is for the drivers.
“There is a general concern that the resources made available for implementation of the big four may not be adequate,” the report says.
According to the Medium-Term Plan III, approximately Sh367.334 billion is required to implement the Big Four development masterplan in 2019/20.
According to the plan, the indicative 2019/2020 budget for agriculture and livestock is estimated at Sh55.97 billion, manufacturing at Sh125.42 billion, health at Sh82.8 billion and population, urbanization and housing at Sh103.15 billion.
It points out that a major hindrance is the lack of a clear collaborative framework between the national and county governments.
“Two of the big four pillars, Agriculture and Health, are actually devolved functions. There is need for a clear collaborative framework between the two levels of government in order for the plan to be implemented adequately.”