Restrict State officials' expenditure on travel – Business Daily
A Section of 11 Mps From North Eastern at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi on March 1, 2020, after returning from a trip to Somalia. PHOTO | EVANS HABIL | NMG
The Controller of Budget’s (CoB) scorecard is out. As usual, spending on travel and entertainment stands out.
The latest CoB data shows the expenditure was Sh15.3 billion in the nine months to March.
This is a whopping, Sh3.1 billion surge from the Sh12.2 billion spent in the nine months to March 2021 at the height of Covid-19 travel curbs.
Foreign travel costs by government officials rose 160 percent or Sh2.4 billion to Sh3.9 billion.
The National Assembly spent Sh1.05 billion on foreign travel, making MPs the biggest spenders in that category. Spending on domestic travel increased to Sh8.4 billion from Sh7.7 billion, with lawmakers accounting for 32 percent of the expenditure at Sh1.05 billion.
State officials spending on snacks and hospitality was Sh3.08 billion.
The spending is alarming, especially when public resources are constrained in the wake of Covid-19 and global economic shocks worsened by a huge debt burden.
We call on the government to revisit austerity measures earlier put in place to rein in runaway expenditure on travel and refreshments.
