Hiked Taxes and 2 Other Financial Flaws Nyakang’o Exposed Before Arrest
Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakang’o, before her arrest on Tuesday, had exposed three financial flaws in the government including negative implications of the recent hiked taxation.
Owing to the revelations made during her appearance before the National Dialogue Committee on October 31, leaders across the political divide led by former Prime Minister Raila Odinga read malice in the Tuesday arrest.
PoliticalPulseChat highlights three financial flaws that were highlighted by the COB;
Hiked Taxation
While acknowledging that the government had put in place various measures to raise revenue, Nyakang’o expressed concern over the high taxation and how it would be detrimental to the economy in the long run.
She questioned why the government has decided to increase park fees noting that this will not yield the desired results as the same tourists could go to neighboring Tanzania and Uganda for a similar experience and pay less.
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“We have seen high taxation, leading to high prices. and therefore leading to inflation. Sometimes we do not link the high taxation to the high prices and therefore to the capital flight.
“This morning in one of the WhatsApp groups I am in. I saw the ladies ask why would they pay USD200 to enter the park when they could see the same animals from the Tanzanian side by paying very little. Some of the things we are doing have a ripple effect,” she stated.
Use of Loans
On the other hand, the CoB exposed that Kenyans were not getting value for the loans that were being borrowed from foreign governments and multinational institutions.
Nayakang’o alleged that her review during the authorization of loan repayments indicated that some of the projects undertaken by the loans could not be identified.
To drive her point home before the committee, Nyakang’o gave the analogy of a drunk person, who borrows a loan intended to help his family, but then goes ahead to spend it all in a bar.
“You just find a name of why we borrowed and you cannot trace it to anything. You cannot tell what the money was borrowed for. So, there is no economic gain.
“We found some ambiguous definitions of the loans and the Treasury could not tell us what we were going to do with the loans,” she indicated.
Budget Exaggerations by the National Treasury
Further, Nyakang’o shocked the Committee when she revealed that the budget for her salary had been tripled.
She indicated that the phenomenon was common in most government offices even as she called on the Treasury to ensure that all budgets forwarded to Parliament and constitutional offices such as hers are accurate.
According to the CoB, efforts to establish why the allocation for her salary had been tripled despite only receiving her regular pay had proved futile.
“I am the only state officer in my institution. So there is nothing like confusion. I am all alone there. So I asked them why the budget showed three times what my annual salary was. It was like that for all the state officers. They have not answered why they have budgeted three times what I should be earning.
“Talk to the Treasury on how they are handling the budget. There is a big problem there.” she posed.
Treasury Response
While responding to the flaws raised by the COB, Treasury CS Njuguna Ndung’u allayed any fears of financial impropriety at his office.
He noted that Nyakang’o served in an independent office and had the right to call for an audit.
However, he explained occasionally, the budget of certain officers was often put above the expected estimates owing to the uncertainties of travel among others.
“For instance, for my travel, I have specific non-travels which could be 3-4. But the others come in because of duty requirements. In a sense, they do not know how much I will travel and they will put in an estimate.
“At the end year, they look and what you spent then they also put in an estimate,” he stated.
Nyakang’o’s Arrest
The CoB was arrested in Mombasa following a complaint filed against her and 10 others in connection with a SACCO.
She was charged with defrauding someone of Ksh 29 million, operating FEB Sacco Society Limited without a valid license from the Sacco Regulatory Authority, and forging someone’s signature in 2019.
Hiked Taxes and 2 Other Financial Flaws Nyakang’o Exposed Before Arrest