The National Treasury is on the spot for introducing a ghost projects allocation in the supplementary budget II meant to cushion Kenyans against revenue loss from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The new projects were not approved by the National Assembly through the 2019 Appropriation Act and the report by the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) presented to the Budget and Appropriations Committee, accuses the Treasury of violating Article 223 of the Constitution and Section 44 of the Public Finance Management (PFM) Act.
The Treasury allocatied Sh1.5 billion to “Nairobi Metropolitan Services under the Presidency”, which does not make any sense and may not even be related to the Covid-19 fight.
The PBO also highlighted Sh1.8 billion meant for the rehabilitation of the Nairobi-Nanyuki metre-gauge railway. However, money has already been spent but the Treasury introduced the repair work as a new project. PBO also notes that under the State Department for Infrastructure, roads critical emergency intervention and spot improvement intervention got Sh1.75 billion and Sh1.08 billion, respectively, without a list of targeted projects being Listed.
Projects that had no allocation in the approved budget have also got a total allocation of Sh1.041 billion.
The proposed allocation of Sh6.2 billion to settle historical pending bills in the Correctional Services department and the transfer of Sh4.5 billion for leasing police vehicles from the Interior ministry to the Treasury have also been faulted.
Other suspect projects include Sh1.15 billion allocated for the setting up and rehabilitation of water pans in arid and semi-arid areas, Sh200 million for drilling boreholes and installing tanks in the capital and Sh40 million for the Korbesa and Malka Galla water supply project.
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