Gov't yet to release Ksh.13.7B in salaries - List of most affected ministries

A number of government institutions in six ministries are yet to receive their salaries for the month of March.

Details show that those institutions are still owed up to Ksh.13.7 billion including salaries for workers at the Kenya Revenue Authority and the Teachers Service Commission.

According to the data for up to mid of April, the KRA was yet to receive Ksh.1.7 billion meant for personnel emoluments.

A section of semi-autonomous agencies under the Ministry of Health were owed Ksh.2.5 billion, Ksh.306 million for agencies under the Ministry of Energy, Ksh.845 million for the National Youth Service and Ksh.213 million for semi-autonomous agencies at the department of regional development and northern corridor development.

The government has for the last nine years been on a tight financial space, having to service debt with 60 percent of its tax revenue.

Between July 2022 and this month, the National Treasury has paid up to Ksh.843 billion in debt servicing. This is out of debt repayment schedule of Ksh.1.36 trillion for the financial year ending June 2023.

An analysis of the monthly repayments shows the highest debt expenditure was in January this year, when the National Treasury spent Ksh.132 billion.

In February the government spent Ksh.58 billion on the same, rising to Ksh.121 billion in March, partly explaining why the cash flow challenges that led to delayed salaries in the public service.

At the revenue front, Kenya Revenue Authority had collected at least Ksh.1.39 trillion by the end of March. The government had borrowed up to Ksh.396 billion locally and Ksh.235 billion from the external market, raising at least Ksh.2 trillion to finance the government’s expenditure in the first nine months of the financial year.

An assessment of the expenditure trends though shows changing patterns. As of February this year, the government had spent Ksh.261 billion on development, compared to the previous financial year when the government had spent up to Ksh. 300 billion on development by February 2022.

The Ruto administration has so far spent Ksh. 1.37 trillion on recurrent expenditure , Ksh.100 billion  more than the previous administration around the same time last year.

On county transfers, the current administration has paid out Ksh. 183 billion, Ksh.10 billion less than last year.

And as the counties continue to wait for their share of revenue for the four months of 2023, reports indicate that the National Treasury has resolved to release over Ksh. 31 billion for the month of January, the plan being to pay the pending released in the coming weeks to reduce the backlog.

“We are paying salaries by collecting revenues. All salaries have been paid. We are collecting more money and all governors are going to be paid another disbursement in a short time…,” said Gachagua.

The delayed disbursements have caused challenges in implementing county programmes and budget plans.