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Government ministries and departments spent Sh89 billion less than the targeted amount of Sh1 trillion during the first half of 2022/2023 financial year.

The government entities spent Sh911.4 billion in both development and recurrent expenditures with the education sector being the highest spender. “The discrepancy between actual and target expenditures was partly due to the non-capture of the parastatals and some other government entities expenditures. These ministerial expenditures are therefore provisional,” reads the quarterly economic and budgetary review report released by the National Treasury.

Recurrent expenditure

The report states that the recurrent expenditure stood at Sh721.4 billion against a target of Sh702 billion, while development expenditure amounted to Sh189.9 billion against a target of Sh363.7 billion.

The report shows that the ministry of health which has spent Sh61.2 billion and the six sub-sectors in the education sectors which have so far gobbled up Sh271.293 billion account for 41 percent of total recurrent expenditure.

Out of the Sh271.293 billion spent in the education sector, the Teachers Service Commission spent the highest amount of Sh149.2 billion, followed by State Department for University Education at Sh56.9 billion, Early Learning and Basic Education Sh52.9 billion, State Department for Implementation of Curriculum Reforms Sh146 million while the State Department for Post Training and Skills Development spent Sh96 million.

 “During the period under review, the Education sector also recorded the highest absorption 97.6 percent followed by General Economic and Commercial Affairs (GECA) at 96.7percent and Governance, Justice, Law and Order (GJLO) at 96.4 percent. Social Protection, Culture and Recreation (SPC&R) recorded the lowest absorption of 71.3 percent,” adds the report.

The Ministry of Defence whose total expenditures stand at Sh65.8 billion and the State Department for Interior and Citizen Services that account for Sh69.2 billion followed closely as they accounted for 8.2 per cent and 9.1 percent of total recurrent expenditure respectively.

State department

With regards to the total expenditures for both development and recurrent expenditures for the State Department for infrastructure whose total expenditures for development stands at Sh110.6 billion, National Treasury Sh 87.1 billion and Ministry of water, Sanitation and irrigation and Sh28.2 billion representing 13.4 per cent. 

“The expenditures by large Ministries/State Departments were below target because of under-reporting of expenditure from the sub- national, parastatals and some donor funded projects,” reads the report.