Taxpayer Scandal: Treasury Pays State Officers Triple Salaries, Costs Ksh.1B
The National Treasury’s recent overestimation of Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakang’o’s salary by a factor of three, and by extension, the salaries of other State officers, could potentially cost the nation more than Ksh.1 billion in taxpayer funds.
The damning disclosure was not unexpected; rather, it validated the ongoing pattern of schemes aimed at misappropriating funds from public funds.
Nyakang’o, who testified before the National Dialogue Committee on Tuesday, elaborated on how the Consolidated Fund Services have been utilized by the Treasury to overbudget the salaries of senior government officials.
For example, the Treasury initially allocated Ksh.17.82 million for her annual remuneration in the 2022/2023 fiscal year, which prompted her office to express concern because the amount was significantly greater than what she earned annually.
Treasury would only reduce that amount to Ksh.10.15 million, which remained more than her annual salary of Ksh.9.18 million.
A comparable pattern was noted in the budget for the fiscal year 2023/2024, wherein the Treasury allocated Ksh.18,357,787 for her salary, which is approximately 93% over her tangible yearly compensation of Ksh.9.51 million.
The Treasury had allocated Ksh.42.4 million for the salaries and allowances of the President and his deputy. However, the figures reflect their actual gazetted remuneration as Ksh.32.05 million, representing a discrepancy of Ksh.10.35 million.
Nyakang’o’s disclosure implies that the individuals in question are not the sole casualties, as the irregularities affect senior government officials funded by the Consolidated Fund Services (CFS), including but not limited to the President and his deputy, the Auditor General, the Chairperson, Vice Chairperson, and Commissioners of the IEBC, the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Attorney General, and others whose salaries are excessively budgeted, only to witness the funds vanish during the supplement
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Over Ksh.1.5 billion in discrepancies exist between the initial budget and the actual salaries of State officers under CFS for the 2023/2024 fiscal year, according to Nyakang’o. The whereabouts of these funds remain unknown.
Nyakang’o asserts that she became cognizant of the anomaly solely through personal experience and that the majority of senior government officials who are impacted are oblivious to the inconsistencies.
She demands an audit be conducted immediately to close the loophole that she refers to as “budgetary corruption.”
Nyakang’o’s disclosure reveals the preventable causes of the nation’s debt crisis, as it is becoming apparent that the government may require less than what is projected in its budget due to trivial exaggerations of expenditures.
The disclosures occur in the context of diminishing tax revenues; the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) recently acknowledged falling short of its revenue target of Ksh.79 billion for the initial quarter of the present fiscal year. This occurs against a backdrop of apprehensions regarding the exorbitant cost of living and taxation frameworks that appear to impose an additional financial burden on taxpayers who are already burdened.
“This revelation not only pours cold water on efforts by the Kenya Kwanza government to tame corruption but raises fundamental questions on the effectiveness of parliament’s oversight role in the budget approval process,” CEO of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) Kwame Owino said.
Taxpayer Scandal: Treasury Pays State Officers Triple Salaries, Costs Ksh.1B
