Uhuru Kenyatta’s typing ‘era’

By Maseme Machuka and Peter Opiyo

Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta was last night headed for more trouble following fresh claims that there were new discrepancies amounting to Sh10.7 billion in the revised Supplementary Budget approved by Parliament last week.

The claims have dealt a huge blow on Uhuru, who is also Deputy Prime Minister, and put Treasury on the spot again only two weeks after the minister was let off the hook for presenting budget figures with errors.

On Monday, Uhuru did not take calls while Finance Permanent Secretary Joseph Kinyua flatly declined to speak to The Standard. But Uhuru’s allies swiftly rallied to his rescue, with a majority turning the heat on the whistleblower — Mars Group — dismissing their revelation as a cheat publicity stunt.

Mars Group Kenya chief executive Mwalimu Mati said in memorandum to the National Assembly at the weekend that the Budget "remains as erroneous and full of discrepancies as its earlier version."

Mati said a closer look at the resubmitted Supplementary Estimates shows that even as the printed estimates error was corrected a "completely new set of errors and discrepancies has been introduced into the current Recurrent and Development Estimates."

But Finance PS Joseph Kinyua would not be drawn to speak about it.

"Oh no, I’m not talking to you…No! No! No" Kinyua said when The Standard reached him on the telephone.

According to Mars Group, the variances between the revisions contained in the first and the second versions of the Supplementary Budget cannot "be a computer error but a deliberate parlance in cooking up figures."

Last week Parliament passed the Supplementary Estimates, giving the Government a go ahead to spend the money.

Speaker Kenneth Marende directed that the motion for consideration of the of the estimates for the year 2008/2009 approved by the House in April 29 pursuant to Standing Order No.156 stood valid and that the House could proceed to transact the Supplementary Appropriation Bill 2009.

Two estimates

The Finance minister then presented to the House the two Supplementary Estimates — the Recurrent Expenditure 2008/2009 and the Supplementary Estimates Development Expenditure 2008/2009.

Uhuru then told Parliament that the earlier estimates had been withdrawn and that what he was presenting would supersede the estimates table in the House on April 22.

But Mati said recommendations made by the Joint Committee of the Budget Committee and the Finance Committee had not been followed.

The joint committee recommended an independent forensic audit, and the estimates withdrawn from the House and the Fiscal Management Bill be approved and enacted as a matter of urgency.

Mati says that in moving the "corrected" Supplementary Estimates, the minister implied that Clause 2 of the Bill provided for issuance from the Consolidated Fund of Sh26,251,311,790 and to appropriate the funds for various services and purposes during the financial year ending 30th January 2009.

"This cannot be true. If one adds up all the revisions of supply taken directly from schedule one of the Supplementary Appropriations, then the figure in Clause 2 ought to be Sh26,087,512,713," said Mati.

Grey area

Another contested item is the aid to be applied in the recurrent expenditure of Sh4,628,325,694, whereas manual calculations of the vote-by-vote sub totals of expected appropriations in aid totaled Sh4,488,352,694. The difference is inflation on the expected income by Sh139,973,000.

Another grey area was the appropriation in aid of development expenditure worth Sh5.2 billion, whereas the manual calculation for the same was Sh6.06billion.

Mati, who raised the alarm in the first estimates that were tabled in the Parliament, said the minister made changes to the revised estimates without amending the Supplementary Appropriations Bill 2009, raising the prospect that Parliament had approved sums not detailed in any law, and creating a loophole for misappropriation of public funds.

The Sh10.7b errors are affecting 211 lines items from 36 ministries.

The Chairman of Parliamentary Budget Committee, Mr Martin Ogindo, said last night he is yet figure out any discrepancies in the Supplementary Budget although the committee was scrutinising the estimates.

"I need to appreciate the discrepancy first before I can comment, but it would be a tragedy if it there," Mr Ogindo told The Standard.

Turkana Central MP Ekwe Ethuro said he had no knowledge of the error but added that it would be shocking if indeed a discrepancy exists.

"When there was an error in the Supplementary Estimates last time, the minister assured us they (the minister and Treasury officials) would be more careful next time. I’ll therefore be surprised if this error exists," said Ethuro, who is also a member of the Budget committee.

He blamed such mistakes on failure to give Parliament capacity to scrutinise the Budget process.

The Parliamentary Investments Committee Chairman Mithika Linturi said he was not aware of the discrepancy, but added that if it was true then Uhuru should take the blame.

Publicity seekers

Siakago MP Lenny Kivuti discounted any possibility of an error in the estimates, and dismissed Mars Group as publicity seekers.

He said: "Even assuming there were printing errors again, it would be wrong to blame it on the minister. He does not write the figures."

Kamukunji MP Simon Mbugua said this was an attempt by some people to sabotage Uhuru.