This archive report was first published on 19 December 2019.
December 19, 2019, marked a significant turning point for the Treasury as it prepares to ease rules for donor projects. The National Assembly's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has given acting Treasury Secretary Ukur Yatani three months to develop a framework to address challenges associated with low absorption of donor funds.
The committee's recommendation comes after former Auditor-General Edward Ouko revealed that the government recorded an expenditure of Sh980.2 million against a budget of Sh2.03 billion under the Global Fund for scaling up Malaria control interventions for impact project (Grant No. KEN-M-TNT). The under absorption was attributed to various reasons including procurement-related challenges.
According to Mr. Ouko, the Global Fund KEN-M-TNT had a budget of Sh2.03 billion for the year to June 2017 but recorded an expenditure of Sh980.2 million, leaving a balance of Sh1.05 billion equivalent to 52 percent budget under-absorption.
“This implies that more than half of the activities budgeted for development programmes were not implemented,” Mr. Ouko said. “Similarly, from the statement of receipts and payments, an amount of Sh961.4 million was received during the year against a budget of Sh2.03 billion and thus Sh1.06 billion of budgeted funds were not received,” he added.
