Clash looms over reading of Budget

Photo/ FILE Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta during his 2009/ 10 Budget speech at the Parliament Building on June 11, 2009. Mr Kenyatta has announced the day of budget reading as Wednesday, the June 8, 2011.

By JUSTUS ONDARI jondari@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted  Tuesday, May 24 2011 at 22:30

A cloud of uncertainty hangs over this year’s budget after a powerful parliamentary committee accused Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta of “misleading the public” by announcing that he will read the Budget speech to the House on June 8.

The Parliamentary Budget Committee, which comprises 15 members and chairmen of all parliamentary committees, said the minister had no such powers under the new Constitution.

“Whatever we are reading in the media that the Minister for Finance will be reading the budget can only be considered as a big assumption,” said Mr Elias Mbau, who is also the Maragua MP.

“Such a presentation as was in the old constitution is misleading to the public.”

Mr Mbau said the committee would discuss the matter on May 31 and decide the way forward.

“The Budget Speech for the Fiscal-Year 2011/12 will be delivered in the National Assembly on Wednesday, the June 8, 2011 at 3pm,” Mr Kenyatta said in a brief notice appearing in the daily newspapers on Tuesday.

The MP said under the current Constitution, the minister was only expected to submit estimates of revenue and expenditure to Parliament, which will then be presented to the budget committee for “discussion, dissection and debate.”

The committee then prepares a report, complete with recommendations, which is tabled before Parliament for discussion before being endorsed or rejected.

This comes a few days after analysts accused the minister of breaking the law by failing to present the budget to Parliament by April 30, 2011, two months before the fiscal year comes to an end on June 30, as required by the law.

Article 221 (1) of the Constitution says: “At least two months before the end of each financial year, the Cabinet Secretary responsible for finance shall submit to the National Assembly estimates of the revenue and expenditure of the national government for the next financial year to be tabled in the National Assembly.”

Mr Mbau accused the minister and Treasury technocrats of reneging on an earlier agreement with the committee on May 2.

“We agreed to close one eye but on condition that the Minister covers us, as a committee, by issuing a ministerial statement in Parliament explaining the little delay and give a commitment that the same will be done by the end of May,” said Mr Mbau.

Mr Kenyatta has not issued the statement and instead announced the day of budget reading.

“To give them the benefit of doubt, we still expect to have a preview of the revenue and expenditure and make the requisite contribution to what will eventually become the final document of the budget,” he told the Nation.

Last week, a source who could not be quoted for fear of risking his organisation’s relationship with the Treasury, said Mr Kenyatta had “broken the law and set a bad precedent” by not observing the Constitution.

“There are no provisions for a transitional period in connection to Chapter 12, which means it became operational immediately and, therefore, the minister has broken the law,” said the source.

The source noted that this was the reason Treasury permanent secretary Joseph Kinyua was sworn in as a commissioner to the Commission on Revenue Allocation, despite not being the principal secretary in the ministry for Finance.

“The question we need to ask ourselves is; are we starting on the wrong footing in the implementation of the constitution on public finance?” Mr John Mutua of the Institute of Economic Affairs asked during the launch of budget literacy manuals at a Nairobi hotel.

Mr Mutua said the constitutional deadline was meant to give MPs ample time to scrutinise the budget estimates and seal any loopholes that may be used to steal public resources.

The Judiciary is also in breach of the Constitution since clause (2) requires that the National Assembly considers the estimates submitted under clause (1) together with the estimates submitted by the Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC) and the Chief Registrar of the Judiciary.