Friday, May 27, 2011

Confusion reigns over Budget D-day

Written By:Kamau Mbote,    Posted: Fri, May 27, 2011
FInance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta is set to deliver the budget on the 8th of June
The budget date as set by member states of the East African community is final says Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Uhuru Kenyatta.
Uhuru says he will deliver the budget to Parliament on Wednesday the 8th of June despite the chairman of the parliamentary budget committee indicating otherwise.
Chairman of the committee Elias Mbau said treasury could not decide on the date without consulting the committee.
Confusion has reigned in the past few days on when the budget will be read after it emerged that the minister of finance was yet to present the estimates before the Parliamentary budget committee as required by the new constitution.
But according to Uhuru it was impossible for the team in Treasury to keep up with the constitutional requirement this year due to the short period since the promulgation of the constitution.
The minister also believes there is a divergence in interpretation of the constitution on presentation of the estimates.
Uhuru argues that the 8th of June for the budget presentation to the nation is a final date as it goes in tandem with other East African community countries.
Unutilized funds
On the 145 billion shillings that ministries are expected to return to treasury over their non utilization of the funds, Uhuru says there has been a slow uptake of projects as well as procurement and bureaucratic procedures that have slowed down the implementation of earmarked projects.
Estimates tabled by the minister before parliament indicate that the government plans to spend 976 billion shillings in the next financial year compared to 884 billion allocated last year for the current fiscal year.

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