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{
    "id": 1342531,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1342531/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 134,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Prof. Njuguna Ndung’u",
    "speaker_title": "The Cabinet Secretary for National Treasury and Economic Planning",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Hon. Speaker, in response to this Question in totality, the constraints are purely the Exchequer revenues. The allocation of Government revenue is guided by the Constitution, the Public Finance Management Act, 2012, the Contingencies Fund and the Commission on Revenue Allocation Act. The Constitution provides the structure and the priority in which revenue collected by the national Government shall be shared between the national and county governments as provided for under the Constitution. There are also non- discretionary expenditures that take the first charge in the budget. These include allocations towards debt service, pensions, Contingency Fund, salary requirements across government and provision to constitutional commissions and independent offices, including Parliament and the Judiciary. Once resources are shared according to the list that I have provided, we look at what is left and then it can be shared out. The constraints have been with us for a long time. In respect of the second part of the Question, the prevailing fiscal environment such as considerable debt repayments, the current expenditure allocations and given the need to respond to emergencies have placed the National Treasury in very peculiar circumstances. With that in mind, I have provided a table on Page 11 that shows the allocations and the arrears which answer the third part of the Question. I have showed the arrears. For example, I have started with actual allocation in the 2016/2017 Financial Year and ended up with allocations of 2022/2023 Financial Year. I have shown the budgetary allocations and on the last row, I have shown the arrears. The arrears are Kshs30.056 billion. On the last part of the Question, I have shown the amount that has been allocated to the Political Parties Fund. This is also provided in Table 12. It starts from 2018, where an amount of Kshs671 million was allocated to the fund all the way to 2023 where Kshs1.47 billion was allocated to the fund. The problem here is that even though money is allocated, the fiscal constraints are giving us a major problem. However, the National Treasury has been progressively enhancing the allocation to the Political Parties Fund to limit growth of these arrears. As I have shown on the table in Page 11, we want to make sure that we minimise this. Additionally, the Political Parties Fund is administered by the Registrar of Political Parties as provided under Section 23 of the Political Parties Act, 2011. Further, Section 68 of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA), 2012 gives responsibilities of an accounting officer, which include preparing estimates of expenditure and revenues of the entity in conformity with the strategic plan. Any further details on this can be adequately provided by the Registrar of Political Parties. Let me summarise by stating that it is the fiscal constraints that have pushed us this far. We believe that the future will likely be bright so that we can clear these arrears. Thank you."
}