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Controller of Budget (CoB) Margaret Nyakang’o position will be at risk if a petition filed in parliament succeeds.

The petition raises concerns over Nyakang’o’s failure to meet the constitutional threshold and criteria required under Article 228 (4) and (5) on overseeing implementation of the budget of the national government.

The petitioner Bernard Muchere, a Fraud Risk Management Consultant, avers that the CoB failed to exercise her constitutional mandate as required under Article 228(4)&(5) of the Constitution 2010 on overseeing the implementation of the 2023/2024 budget as authorized by the Appropriation Act assented to by the President on June 26, 2023.

He says that the CoB’s review covering six months between July 1 to December 31, 2023 failed to meet the constitutional threshold on overseeing budget implementation.

“This posed a serious negative effect on budget implementation for the Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs),” Muchere explains.

Statistical analysis

The CoB report, he argues, contains statistical analysis on expenditure consumption and a comparison between the provisions of two different statutes, the 2023/2024 Appropriation Act and 2022/2023 Appropriation Act, rather than a report on effective control of withdrawals from the consolidated fund against budgeted expenditure as required by law.

Continues the petitioner; “By doing so, the CoB acted outside the constitution which states her responsibilities to be among others, oversee the implementation of the budgets of the national and county governments by authorizing withdrawals from public funds under Articles 204, 206, and 207.”
“While the CoB is not mandated to approve any withdrawal from a public fund unless satisfied that the withdrawal is authorized by law, she went ahead and did so,” says Muchere.

Aggregating estimates

He further argues that while the Appropriation Act authorised only expenditure estimates aggregating to Sh2.4 trillion comprising Sh1.56 trillion recurrent expenditure and Sh807.6 billion development expenditure, which the Act authorized the expenditure estimates of approximately Sh4.34 trillion reported under the executive summary of the CoB report.

Muchere wants the CoB to explain which Appropriation Act authorized estimates of external loans and grants, and domestic borrowing aggregating to Sh 870 billion and Sh688 billion respectively, as stated in her report.

He says that the reallocation of funds which was done only three months into 2023/2024 budget implementation, even before any expenditure has been incurred violates Article 223(1) of the Constitution.

“For instance, how did the State Department of Roads determine that the Mau-Mau Roads Lot 1&1 B (Kiambu), Lot 2 (Muranga), and Lot 3 (Nyeri) budgeted expenditure estimates aggregating to Sh1.16 billion at Sh290 million?” he poses.

He says that there is a likelihood that the money will not be utilized resulting in reallocating an aggregate of Sh631.5 million in the process reducing the allocation by 54.44%, contrary to the constitution.

“Only Sh528.6 million remained for the construction of the roads. This means stalling the construction of the roads or incurring pending bills,” Muchere affirms.

He therefore wants Parliament to establish a select committee to inquire on the matters raised in the petition.

The committee, he says should inquire into the failure of the CoB to exercise her constitutional mandate as required by the law on overseeing the implementation of the 2023/2024 budget, more so, controlling withdrawal of public money from the consolidated fund and other funds against the budgeted expenditure.