Treasury Cabinet Secretary Njuguna Ndung’u was called before the Finance Parliamentary Committee on Wednesday to explain why the State has failed to release funds intended for the National Government Constituency Development Fund (NG-CDF).
Ndung’u stated that the government is committed to resolving the ongoing standoff as soon as sufficient funds are available to distribute to the counties.
The Treasury Secretary also claimed that the public coffers are running low on cash, and that revenue collection has failed to help the government meet its financial goals.
“NG-CDF will be released as soon as government has enough funds, at the moment we are not getting taxes as required and the government is having challenges paying salaries, so please bear with us, we are working around the clock to make things work,” Ndung’u told legislators.
“We are doing everything possible to ensure the disbursement of CDF funds no matter how little we can.”
The CS went on to add that the Kenya Kwanza administration has faced unprecedented challenges including the global economic dip which has sparked inflation in the nation.
He added that the economic crisis has unpreventably plunged the nation into further debt, which has forced the government to make drastic structural measures to shield Kenya’s crumbling economy.
“The changing movement and international infrastructure has actually amplified our debt repayment and increased our debt by Ksh.145 billion which is close to 0.9% of our GDP and it was threatening to raise our deficit from 4.4% to 5.3% which was unacceptable,” he said.
“In the end, we were only able to accommodate 0.3% to 4.7% but it means that we have to raise 0.6% which is about Ksh.90 billion.”
To raise the Ksh.90 billion, CS Ndung’u proposed that government expenditure can be lowered by the same amount or look for external resources “That is why our president is very busy contacting our friends.”
This comes amid uproar from Members of Parliament as they argue that NG-CDF funds have not been disbursed for the last six months while supporting its Executive programmes.
The uproar led to a staged walk-out by MPs from plenary on Tuesday calling for an immediate release of the monies.
Meanwhile, NG-CDF board CEO Yusuf Mbuno told the MPs then that only Ksh. 10 billion of the Ksh. 44.2 billion intended to be released had been disbursed.
This also does not fall far from the revelations of the Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakang’o on how the government has had financial irregularities.
Nyakang’o said that she has observed a tripling of salaries for state officers and an increment in travel budgets for government officials and their delegations that amounted to Ksh. 20 billion.
