Committee raises concerns over proposed 2018/2019 supplementary budget

National Assembly’s Budget and Appropriations Committee on Budget has raised several concerns within the proposed second 2018/2019 supplementary budget.

The biggest concern, it appears surrounds the governments capacity to finance it.

According to the Kimani Ichungwa-led committee, the second supplementary budget seems to have been necessitated by shortfalls in salaries, security related expenditures, support to food security initiatives, and provisions to mitigate against effects of drought among others.

In their estimation, the lawmakers say it would require the national treasury to reallocate more funds to the original budget up to about 65.03 billion shillings.

Delivering details of the report before the national assembly Tuesday, Ichungwa noted that some of the urgent measures the government needs to undertake includes subjecting to a special audit by the auditor general on payments toward outstanding obligations.

The committee further called on the national treasury to build capacity in streamlining the process of planning and approval of projects especially those that are donor funded.

The kikuyu lawmaker disclosed that his committee is concerned about the low absorption of development projects.

These concerns, nothwithstanding, the budget estimates recommend a range of reallocations for different development projects, economic sectors and government agencies.