Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury John Mbadi has called upon Principal Secretaries (PSs) to ensure prudent financial management of funds allocated to their state departments and stop wastage of resources.
Mbadi said the government is proposing some reforms on how funds should be utilised and urged the PSs, who are the accounting officers of State Departments and all government officers to embrace the reforms for the betterment of the country.
He announced that the National Treasury is implementing the treasury single account for efficiency and urged public officers to embrace E-procurement, terming it an efficient service.
“Before the implementation of e-procurement, things being done were causing inefficiency and were unbeneficial,” said Mbadi, and added that the government is trying to move away from zero rating of commodities as they create a lot of corruption in the system.
The CS was speaking during the Public Sector Hearings for the FY 2026/27 and the Medium-Term Budget held at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre where senior government officers, stakeholders and the public are gathering for three days to give their views on the budget which is being reviewed.
Sector Working Groups are expected to ensure adherence to the hard budget constraint during the three-day public-sector hearings.
Sector working groups were initiated to keenly scrutinise budget proposals submitted by ministries, departments and agencies and ensure adherence to the hard budget constraint.
Mbadi reiterated the government’s commitment to fiscal consolidation as a means to containing accumulation of debt and targets to reduce the fiscal deficit to 3 percent of Gross Domestic Product.
He said Treasury is also in the process of integrating the payroll system, a system he noted will stop the deduction of employees’ salaries to pay bank and sacco loans.
“It has been observed that some deductions are being done, and the same are not remitted and are applied elsewhere which is immoral,” remarked the CS.
Mbadi said the reforms being initiated will help address some of the challenges and eliminate wastage of resources.
He at the same time stated that the government is thinking of innovative ways of funding the country’s infrastructure, such as setting up a National Infrastructure Fund which will enable the construction of major roads and dams.
By Bernadette Khaduli
Photo by Boniface Malinda KNA
