The government has slashed the current budget by Sh169.2 billion a day after President William Ruto dissolved his Cabinet in response to public pressure to implement austerity measures and curb the wastage of public resources.
A joint meeting of Principal Secretaries adopted the measures proposed by the National Treasury to cut the recurrent budget by Sh35.7 billion and development expenditure by Sh133.5 billion.
“In response to the austerity measures, the National Development Implementation Committee (NDIC) directed accounting officers (PSs) to rationalise and prioritise their activities and programmes within the available resources and limit requests for additional resources during implementation,” reads a dispatch from the committee.
“The financial year 2024/25 budget will immediately be resubmitted to the National Assembly to reflect the above for approval.”
The NDIC was chaired by Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi, who is also the Cabinet Secretary for Foreign and Diaspora Affairs and deputised by the Head of Public Service Felix Koskei. The meeting was attended by all principal secretaries who are also members of NDIC.
The meeting follows President Ruto’s directive that Principal Secretaries take over the roles of Cabinet Secretaries who were fired on Thursday.
The NDIC is tasked with overseeing the implementation of all national government programmes, policies and projects.
President Ruto two weeks ago directed the Treasury to prepare a mini-budget to cut the Sh3.92 trillion national budget by Sh346 billion following the deadly anti-Finance Bill, 2024 and anti-government protests led by young Kenyans of the Generation Zoomer (Gen Z).
In an address to the nation following the Gen Z protests, Dr Ruto ordered budget cuts on non-essential expenditures in his office, including travel, hospitality, and the purchase of motor vehicles, to curb the wastage of funds and plug a Sh346 billion hole caused by the now abandoned controversial Finance Bill, 2024.
The NDIC, which was held at the Kenya School of Government (KSG), directed accounting officers to rationalise and prioritise their activities and programmes within the available resources and limit requests for additional resources during implementation.
Mudavadi said the meeting received and deliberated on the reports of the National Integrated Post Disaster Management Assessment on Floods; the budget summary for the financial year 2024/25; austerity measures; zero fault audit of outstanding issues raised by the Auditor General for all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs); foreign economic diplomatic visits and summits; and revised guidelines on the framework for coordination and monitoring of government operations.
“The NDIC noted that the government has rolled out austerity measures across all MDAs. As a result, it adopted the measures proposed by the National Treasury to whittle down the recurrent budget by Sh35.7 billion and by Sh133.5 billion for development budget,” Mudavadi said.
On the Zero Fault Audit Report, which seeks not to attract a single audit query from the Office of the Auditor General, the NDIC said the objective is to strengthen good governance, integrity, accountability, transparency and the establishment of global best practices within MDAs by ensuring prudent use and management of public resources and the delivery of timely and quality services to Kenyans.
“Upon consideration of the report, NDIC directed PSs to ensure that heads of accounts complete all financial statements by August 10, 2024, and PSs must attend audit entry meetings to ensure reduction of wastage in public penalties, fines, and legal consequences, which take away resources from development,” Mudavadi said.
“While noting that all State Departments had established Corruption Prevention Committees chaired by the Principal Secretaries, the NDIC directed that each State Department commit to sensitise staff on ethics, integrity and anti-corruption; undertake corruption risk assessment and mitigation plan; and provide all relevant information and documentation to EACC and any other investigative agency investigating corruption cases/matters.”
The NDIC also noted that the March-May 2024 floods claimed 315 lives and caused damages of Sh124.15 billion across all sectors in the 47 counties.
It said the floods washed away roads (Sh37.56 billion), affected cooperatives (Sh2 billion), caused environmental damage (Sh6.98 billion) and damaged basic education infrastructure (Sh12.94 billion). A total of 55,010 households and 410,437 people were affected.
Private Public Partnership
“The NDIC directed all PSs to review the Report on Nature, Extent and Impact of Floods and share feedback with the National Government Coordination Secretariat (NGCS) within seven days for input before being escalated to Cabinet for adoption and implementation,” said Mudavadi.
The NDIC also resolved to review the Private Public Partnership Directorate to analyse existing projects and how they are performing, to make it effective and efficient in service delivery in line with the provisions of the Public Private Partnership Act.
On government strategic communications, the committee said there were capacity gaps and budgetary challenges and resolved to establish a multi-agency team led by Mudavadi's office to explore a sustainable whole-of-government-approach solution.
