The State House and Interior Ministry exceeded their budget allocations by over Sh3.8 billion in the fiscal year ending June 30, with minimal transparency regarding the excess expenditure.
Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakang’o disclosed in her latest report that she rejected nearly half of the extra-budgetary funds requested by the State House and Interior Ministry.
The State House sought Sh2.858 billion for “national security and State functions,” all of which were requested on April 9. Out of this, the Controller of Budget approved Sh1.242 billion.
The Ministry of Interior requested Sh3.165 billion, primarily for multi-agency security operations.
The Controller of Budget approved Sh2.65 billion of this amount.
Article 223 of the Constitution allows spending beyond the approved budget under emergencies, such as urgent functions or disasters, or when allocated funds are insufficient.
Parliament must authorize such expenditures within two months after the initial withdrawal.
The government is restricted to spending no more than 10 percent of its total approved budget for a given financial year under this provision.
In the 2023-24 fiscal year, the government spent Sh19.1 billion outside its budget, which was later incorporated into the November 2023 and June 2024 supplementary budgets.
Several other ministries exceeded their approved budgets, including ICT (Sh221 million), Energy (Sh78 million), Agriculture (Sh3.4 billion), the East African Community (Sh1 billion), Environment (Sh2.02 billion), Treasury (Sh3.07 billion), Education (Sh177.5 million), Trade (Sh54.4 million), and Cooperatives (Sh600 million).
The National Police Service overspent by Sh2 billion.
The total requests by national government institutions amounted to Sh30.65 billion, but only Sh19.1 billion was approved for spending, equating to 0.5 percent of the national budget for the year.
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