CS Ndung'u responds to Nyakang'o over 'budgeted corruption'

By Peter Ochieng

Cabinet Secretary (CS) for Finance Professor Njuguna Ndung'u on Monday  responded to Controller of Budget (CoB) Margaret Nyakang'o, over claims of 'budgeted corruption' at the national government level.

Appearing before the National Dialogue Committee last week, Nyakang'o said her salary had been budgeted for three times more the actual amount she is paid per year.

She told the Kalonzo Musyoka and Kimani Inchung'wah led committee that the anomaly had affected several other state officers, among them the president and his deputy.

She said, in essence, that means the country's budget was being inflated to cater for 'budgeted corruption.'

Nyakang'o stated that her plea to get an explanation from Ndung'u's ministry had fallen on deaf ears.

CS Ndung'u on Monday used the same platform to respond to her.

He said he had forwarded the issue to the auditor general 'to establish the truth.'

"If an issue like this is brought to me I take it to the auditor general. I have already pushed this to the auditor general. You cannot make a statement unless you have provided the facts," stated the Treasury CS.

"We don't want to have that kind of connotation that we have institutionalised corruption. This is actually theft of public funds if it was actually taking place. We disburse money on the basis of budget."

Last week, the Controller of Budget revealed how the Treasury has been over-budgeting salaries of senior government officials through the Consolidated Fund Services.

She said Treasury originally budgeted her annual salary as Sh17.82 million, prompting her office to raise concerns.

The ministry reduced the amount to Sh10.15 million which was still higher than her Sh9.18 million annual salary.

The ministry of finance also budgeted for Sh42.4 million as salaries and allowances for president and his deputy, yet their actual gazetted salaries are Sh32.05 million, a whooping difference of Sh10.35 million.