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"id": 157017,
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"content": "seeking approval from Parliament given the fact that the Budget itself is already approved. It is, therefore, unfortunate that this obvious point seems to have eluded some hon. Members including Mr. Imanyara. When I stood before this House on 28th April 2009, to present the Supplementary Budget, I explained the challenges, which we, as the Government, are facing in implementing the original Budget; challenges that I would like to believe hon. Members are aware of. New demands for the Exchequer resources in the face of constrained revenue performance made it necessary for the Government to consider cutting back on non-priority recurrent expenditure while postponing development programmes that appeared unlikely to start in the remaining period to the end of the current financial year, as I explained when I was moving my Motion. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the decision by the Government to cut non-priority expenditure does not constitute fraud. Indeed, it is a sign of prudent financial management for which we should be proud of as a nation. It is also useful to note that the Supplementary Budget Estimates only focus on proposed expenditure changes as I earlier mentioned. There is a house allowance and Medical Allowance of Kshs393.8 million and Kshs16.6 million respectively. These are the only ones reflected in the Supplementary Budget. Mr. Speaker, Sir, if you will allow me to explain further, in the detailed Budget, if you look at the original Printed Estimates, the sum approved for the Ministry of Education was Kshs29, 645,245,859. The sum that we sought on the new line after the reduction of two lines reduced to Kshs29,234,841,500. The figures that Mr. Imanyara received from his advisors indicate only two lines that were touched. There was House Allowance of a total of Kshs16.858 billion which was reduced by a figure of Kshs383 million and Medical Allowance at a figure of Kshs4, 531,000,000 which was reduced by a figure of Kshs16.57 billion. The total of those two lines that were adjusted make up the Kshs21.39 billion that Mr. Imanyara was referring to. Mr. Speaker, Sir, none of the other lines in Personal Allowances were touched and hence there was no need to report them in the Supplementary Budget because they were to proceed along the lines that Parliament had already approved. So, the global figure on net reduction in the Ministry of Education is a figure of approximately Kshs393, 800,000 and Kshs16.6 million respectively. As I had said, the other five sub-items under the Item of Personal Allowance, which amounts to Kshs8.2 billion, were not revised and were therefore, not included in the overall change of the principal Item. However, the Ministry's overall budget remains at Kshs29.2 billion and not the Kshs20.9 billion as alleged. Mr. Speaker, Sir, as hon. Members will recall, I did explain that the austerity measures I proposed were still not adequate to create enough fiscal space to cater fully for the necessary interventions. To ensure the economy and our infrastructure programme remain on course, I propose to borrow more from the domestic market. This is because we are mindful of the need to protect the livelihood of Kenyans. I would, therefore, like to emphasize that Parliament is not being called upon to debate the Printed Estimates which are already approved but only the areas in which proposals are being made to add, reduce or re-allocate funds. It is also worth nothing that the Supplementary Budget has time immemorial - Mr. Imanyara should know this as a senior Member of this House - been prepared indicating only those areas where changes have been proposed to the original Budget."
}