MP says Executive micro-managing other arms through budget cuts

Senate Public Accounts and Investment Committee (PAIC) has waded into plans by the National Treasury to slash Judiciary and National Assembly’s budget allocations by 50 per cent, saying it will adversely affect delivery of services.

PAIC chair Moses Kajwang said the budget cut is “illegal and unconstitutional and is aimed at undermining the country’s prospects of having a robust and dependable independent arms of government.”

 “We are not going to allow that because it’s unconstitutional for the Treasury to micro-manage the budgets of other independent arms of government,” he said.

Kajwang made the remarks on the sidelines of an accountability forum in Mombasa that brought together all county PAIC chairs to share experiences on the oversight and accountability challenges encountered by the devolved units.  

Implementing reports

Kajwang, who is also the Homa Bay senator, said some of the emerging challenges are slow implementation of recommendations emanating from the committees. 

So we want to task EACC, DPP and DCI to ensure that they play part in implementing the reports,” he said. 

Deputy chair of the County Assembly’s Forum and the Speaker of Machakos county, Florence Mwangangi, said devolved units are constrained by lack of technical and financial support.

“The MCAs don’t have training on finance and accounting, so we would want a training on discerning contents of financial reports. The staff in the Assemblies are insufficient to guide PAIC on issues of budgeting,” she said.