This archive report was first published on 27 September 2019.
On September 27, 2019, the Government introduced new austerity measures aimed at reducing spending and increasing savings. The measures, which are set to take immediate effect, include a 75% reduction in furniture costs for public agencies until 2022, the single biggest cut.
Other affected areas include travel by senior Government officials, with delegations limited to four for cabinet secretaries and three for principal secretaries or chief executives. Benchmarking tours, popular with the political class, have been suspended indefinitely.
According to Ukur Yatani, the Acting CS of the National Treasury, the expenditure control measures are aimed at enhancing prudent financial management and fostering financial responsibility. The expected savings will be directed to the President's Big 4 Agenda.
Philip Muema, the managing partner at Andersen Tax, predicts that the savings from the austerity measures would be huge, 'obviously in the tens of billions'. However, he disagrees that cutting back on Government's subscription of newspapers would yield significant savings.
