UDA MPs Accuse CS Mbadi Of Sabotaging Crucial President Ruto Projects
On Tuesday, Members of the National Assembly’s Trade Committee accused the Treasury Ministry, now led by John Mbadi, of sabotaging key development projects across the country.
When they met with senior Treasury officials, MPs from the Departmental Committee on Trade, Industry, and Cooperatives criticized them for failing to release appropriated funds to State Departments.
The committee, led by Embakasi North MP John Gakuya, a member of the ruling United Democratic Alliance (UDA), identified industrialisation and manufacturing as the most significant casualties.
“Our biggest concern as a committee is that the National Treasury has decided to kill industrialisation and the manufacturing sector by starving the state departments of funds,” argued Gakuya.
Aldai MP Marianne Kitany (UDA) questioned the Treasury team in particular about why state departments and agencies were denied development funds.
Keitany contends that these were critical in generating revenue for the country at a time when the government is struggling to raise funds.
“For the government to collect more revenue in the key sectors of the economy, it has to invest funds to spur growth in the various sectors. How do you project to get revenue when you are not investing?” Inquired Kitany.
The blame game occurred at a time when the fate of key projects was unknown due to the Treasury’s failure to release allocated funds as specified in the budget.
Among the projects is the construction of six Export Promotion Zones (EPZ), each of which was allocated Ksh500 million in the previous fiscal year, for a total of Ksh3 billion.
According to Treasury data, only Ksh300 million has been released for the projects following President William Ruto’s directive.
The MPs also questioned why the Ksh3.5 billion for the Coffee Cherry Fund was not released, despite Parliament allocating Ksh4 billion in the financial year 2023/24 budget.
The team also faulted the Treasury for failing to release Ksh350 million for the modernisation of Kenya Planters Cooperative Union (KPCU) warehouses, despite the National Assembly’s allocation in Supplementary Budget II for the fiscal year 2023/2024.
President William Ruto holds talks with counterpart President Xi Jinping in China. He is accompanied by Treasury CS John Mbadi, Roads and Transport CS Davis Chirchir, Water, Sanitation and Irrigation CS Eric Muriithi Muuga and Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi. pic.twitter.com/bxdNyXz5GH
— Sharp Daily (@thesharpdaily) September 3, 2024
Treasury officials, led by Benard Ndungu (the Director General in Charge of Accounting Services), responded by stating that the delays were caused by a revenue shortfall and a scarcity of money resources caused by Kenya’s debt borrowing.
“Due to the shortfall of revenue and scarcity of cash resources, the National Treasury usually applies for administrative criteria by giving priority to public debt,’’ Ndungu told the lawmakers.
Treasury also revealed that the government faced the issue of prioritizing recurrent expenditures, which influenced their decision not to release funds to the affected key projects.
“Security, salaries, counties, social programs such as education, health, development and flagship projects among others equally require administrative priorities,” Mr Ndungu added.
The Treasury cited a lack of funds as to blame for the standoff.
The Ministry disclosed that a total of Ksh 218.5 billion was not released to five state agencies under the Ministry of Cooperatives and Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).
UDA MPs Accuse CS Mbadi Of Sabotaging Crucial President Ruto Projects
