Treasury CS Njuguna Ndung'u dismisses reports on 'budgeted corruption'

Speaking before the National Dialogue Committee on Monday, Prof. Ndung'u said he has already forwarded the matter to the Auditor General to establish the facts.

"If an issue like this is brought to me I take it to the auditor general. I have already pushed this to the auditor general. You cannot make a statement unless you have provided the facts," said the CS.

He added: "We don't want to have that kind of connotation that we have institutionalised corruption. This is actually theft of public funds if it was actually taking place. We disburse money on the basis of budget."

The Controller of Budget, who appeared before the National Dialogue Committee on Tuesday last week, detailed how the Treasury has been over-budgeting salaries of senior government officials through the Consolidated Fund Services. 

Treasury originally budgeted her annual salary as Ksh.17.82 million, prompting her office to raise concerns as the figure was way above what she was taking home annually.

Treasury would only reduce that amount to Ksh.10.15 million which was still higher than her Ksh.9.18 million annual salary.

Treasury also budgeted for Ksh.42.4 million as salaries and allowances of the President and his deputy yet their actual gazetted salaries are Ksh.32.05 million, a difference of Ksh.10.35 million.

Nyakang’o says she only came to know of the anomaly because it affected her personally and that most of the affected senior government officials are not aware of the discrepancies.

She is calling for an immediate audit on the issue to seal the loophole of what she terms as budgeted corruption.