This archive report was first published on 27 September 2019.
Published on September 27, 2019, the Government has introduced austerity measures aimed at reducing spending and increasing savings. The measures, which are set to take immediate effect, include a ban on the use of Government vehicles outside working hours and a suspension of benchmarking tours.
According to Ukur Yatani, the Acting CS of the National Treasury, the expenditure control measures are aimed at enhancing prudent financial management, creating savings for service delivery, and fostering financial responsibility. The measures are expected to yield significant savings, with Yatani's proposal being the most significant in recent times.
Under the new measures, public agencies have been directed to slash budgets for furniture by 75% until 2022, in the single biggest cut. Additionally, travel by senior Government officials has been limited to four for cabinet secretaries and three for principal secretaries or chief executives. The Government has also encouraged staff to embrace the internet as a cheaper means to pass information, with airtime supplied to Government workers to be slashed by 30%.
Philip Muema, the managing partner at Andersen Tax, has predicted that the savings from Yatani's 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, considering that most advertising by ministries and other agencies is already carried in the government's own publications.
