It is said that desperate times call for desperate measures.
Recently, the National Treasury held public participation meetings at KICC for the 2023/24 Budget estimates. Treasury Cabinet Secretary Njuguna Ndung’u revealed that the economic outlook is not very promising this year.
What is disturbing is that there are many projects and programmes started by the former government that have stalled, and are at risk of becoming white elephants, or are progressing at a snail’s pace for lack of funds. Worse, the current government continues to promise, plan for or start new projects despite the gloomy economic projections.
That may be politically correct, as communities that voted in the Kenya Kwanza must be rewarded through public resources and opportunities while the rest punished, but not economically sound.
In the face of scarce resources and competing priorities, the government must prioritise the completion of approved, stalled and ongoing projects. Prof Ndung’u said most of the ministries, state departments and agencies will get less than their requested budgets.
That should be followed by spending guidelines that impress upon spending entities to prioritise completing approved and ongoing projects and paying off debts before starting new ones.
Unfortunately, some requesting departments will rush to implement new projects, which will stall. That will result in huge amounts of unpaid bills as commitments will be made without funds being allocated. It also encourages corruption by creating opportunities for rent-seeking as service providers jostle for front-of-queue positions to get paid.
The government must do away with this wanton approach to project implementation in the face of compelling budgetary and utility reasons. It must not be done for political expediency but for posterity.
Paying off pending bills will increase money in circulation and stimulate economic growth. Complete projects such as roads will serve their purpose and feed into the economic recovery and growth efforts.
Mr Kaboi, a political scientist, is a political and public policy researcher and analyst. [email protected]
