The national and county governments manually requested the withdrawal of Sh1.3 trillion in just seven months to February 2025, to pay debt, pensions, and other recurrent expenditures, bypassing the automated financial system that is meant to ensure transparency.
A confidential report by the Controller of Budget Office to the Finance and National Planning Committee of the National Assembly shows that the manual cash requisitions were made between July 12, 2024, and February 20, 2025.
According to the document dated February 21, 2025, and signed by the Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakang’o, the public debt requisitions done manually formed the bulk of the amounts drawn using manual, as opposed to the automated system means, with Sh893.97 billion was off the system.
The second vote with the highest manual withdrawal requests was county governments’ disbursements at Sh222.61 billion over nine transactions in the seven months to February 2025.
The Controller of Budget report does not say which county made the requests through the manual mode, only listing the days the nine requisitions were made.
Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakang’o.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
This is followed by recurrent expenditure, where Sh198.23 billion were those whose applications were made manually, against Sh576.573 billion that were done on the online system.
On the development expenditure vote, where Sh4.12 billion was requisitioned manually, against Sh159.831 billion made online in the system, the Controller of Budget does not state whether it was by the county or the national government, only stating how much was requested and why.
The Judiciary Fund, which manages the Judiciary operations, had Sh13.3 billion in manual applications for State cash withdrawals, while pensions had Sh11.35 billion, and the Equalisation Fund coming in last at Sh1.96 billion.
The list only focuses on six areas: Public debt, County governments’ disbursements, Recurrent and development expenditure, Judiciary Fund, pensions, and the Equalisation Fund.
All these votes have manual requests for cash from the Controller of Budget, but the report does not also say whether those are the only votes with such requisitions over the seven-month period.
National Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi told Nation.Africa that individual accounting officers of the various ministries who made the payments should be held responsible.
“Payments are done by the accounting officers who in this case should answer the question why the payments were done off the system if in any case that is true,” Mr Mbadi said.
Mr Mbadi said all payments of public debt should be made through the system terming the allegations as “interesting.”
“All public debt payments should be made within the system. If those payments relate to public debt, then that’s interesting,” Mr Mbadi said.
Mr Mbadi said he does not have specific details of the payments Dr Nyakang’o claims to have been made off-system.
“I used to meet such cases when I was in parliament but they always say it’s for things like gratuity and personal emoluments which are not anticipated,” Mr Mbadi said.
In a meeting with the National Assembly Finance and National Planning Committee on February 20, Dr Nyakang’o questioned why the government would choose to make selected payments using a manual system despite the existence of an automated system for all government transactions.
Treasury CS John Mbadi.
Photo credit: Dennis Onsongo | Nation
“I must raise this issue with the National Treasury through writing now because now I have enough data because why are we still paying manually yet we have automated our system,” Dr Nyakang’o said.
The budget controller told MPs that some of the requisitions submitted for her approval lack specifics, as they are presented in lump sums, making it difficult for her office to determine how the money will be used since the payments are made off-system.
“At the end of the quarter, they submit lump sum returns, which still lack specifics on how the money was spent. We have had to reject some of the returns because they lack details,” she added.
While she did not say the monies have been stolen, Dr Nyakang’o said the off-system payment raises accountability questions since the government has a fully-fledged payment done through the system.
Automated exchequer process
“This report details National Government exchequer requisitions since July 2024. The Members of the (National Assembly Finance and National Planning) Committee were particularly interested in distinguishing between requisitions made manually and those processed on the automated exchequer process,” Dr Nyakang’o told the committee in a letter dated February 21, 2025, through the Clerk of the National Assembly.
“We cannot insist on paying small fees electronically while settling our debts manually. For a government with all its systems online, why should we pay our debt manually?” committee chairman Kimani Kuria (Molo, UDA) asked on February 20 when Dr Nyakang’o appeared before them.
National Assembly Committee on Finance and National Planning Chairperson Kuria Kimani.
Photo credit: File| Nation Media Group
Kitui Rural MP David Mwalika, a member of the committee, termed the trend worrying, stating that public debt consumes most of the taxes collected and should therefore be handled transparently, with details on how every coin is spent.
“Public debt has been one of our major headaches as a country, yet now we are being told that these payments have been processed manually. The question we must ask is why? And the CoB must help us get answers,” Mr Mwalika said in the same meeting.
Among the highest public debt requisitions made during the period include Sh56 billion made on July 15, 2024, Sh73 billion made on August 19, and Sh37 billion made on September 25, 2024.
On October 24, 2024, a requisition of Sh46 billion was made, followed by Sh50 billion made on December 10 and Sh59 billion done one week later.
This year, the document shows, Sh56 billion was requisitioned manually on February 17, 2025, and a day later another Sh51 billion was made.
For the pension requisition for the financial year 2024/2025 as of February 20, 2025, the report indicates that Sh11.346 billion had been requested manually.
The entire amount was requisitioned on September 5, 2024
For the recurrent requisition done manually as of February 20, 2025, stood at Sh198.234 billion.
The document shows that the first manual requisition under reference no. RE.010 was done on August 12, 2024, where Sh7, 489,424,573 was requested.
The second one was done on August 13, 2024, where Sh5 billion was requested manually, this was followed by another one on August 19, 2024, where Sh3.4 billion was done before completing the month with another manual request on August 26, 2024, where Sh14 billion was requisitioned.
In September, six requisitions were made manually with the first one being on September 2, 2024, where Sh3 billion was requisitioned, another Sh1.5 billion was requisitioned on September 5, 2024, while Sh3 billion was requisitioned on September 9, 2024.
On September 11, 2024, another Sh8.9 billion was requisitioned followed by another Sh14.5 million on September 12 before another Sh20 billion was manually requisitioned on September 26, 2024.
In the month of October, the first manual requisition was done on October 7, 2024, where Sh1.5 billion was requested, followed by another Sh66 million on October 9 and another Sh7.6 billion two days later.
According to the document, the final manual requisition of Sh20 billion was made on October 24, 2024.
In November, the first requisition was done on November 5, 2024, where Sh9.2 billion was done manually before another request of Sh195 million was made three days later.
The document shows on November 12, 2024, Sh535 million was requested manually followed by another Sh3.5 billion six days later and another Sh20 billion on November 26 with the final requisition for the month of Sh1.4 billion done on November 29, 2024.
On December 6, 2024, Sh69 million, and another Sh7.8 billion was done four days later before Sh20 billion requisition was made on December 20.
On December 24, 2024, Sh1.5 billion was requisitioned manually, another requisition of Sh7.7 billion was done six days later and on the last day of 2024, Sh2.4 billion was requisitioned off the system.
On January 23, 2025, Sh20 billion was requisitioned manually.
This was followed by Sh3.5 billion requisitioned on February 7, 2025, and another Sh5.5 million requested on February 10, 2025
According to the document, on Valentine's Day this year, Sh3.4 billion was requisitioned manually.
For the development requisition, the document shows that Sh4 billion was requested manually.
The document shows that between August 26, 2024 and February 7, 2025, 16 manual claims were made for the Equalisation Fund, with a total of Sh1.9 billion being manually claimed.
For the Judiciary, the document shows that a total of Sh13 billion was requisitioned manually between August 6, 2024 and Valentine’s Day this year, for various stated purposes such as AIEs for court stations, staff claims, medical insurance, and payment of suppliers.
