State splashes Sh10.8b on travel in six months

The government spent Sh10.87 billion on travel in the first half of this financial year, comprising Sh7.74 billion and Sh3.13 billion for domestic and foreign travel, respectively, a review by the Controller of Budget (CoB) has said.

Office of the CoB Margaret Nyakang’o, has said the spending is against the 2025 Budget Policy Statement theme on expenditure reforms to cut non-essential expenses.

This is contained in the CoB’s National Government Budget Implementation Review Report for the first six months of 2025/26 financial year.

Other items with significant expenditure included insurance costs at Sh21.44 billion, security operations at Sh22.2 billion, comprising Sh9.85 billion by the State Department for Internal Security, Sh7.56 billion by the National Treasury and another Sh4.79 billion by the National Police Service .

Teachers Service Commission recorded the highest expenditure in absolute terms at Sh196.55 billion, attributed to the teacher management programme.

“In the first six months of 2025/26 financial year, CoB identified issues that should be addressed to ensure seamless budget implementation not only in the current financial year but also for posterity. These included low absorption of development budget, incomplete automation of procurement and exchequer processes for national government entities, and an upsurge in use of Supplementary Budget under Article 223 of the Constitution for withdrawals from the Consolidated Fund,” Nyakang’o has said.

She said the upsurge in the use of Article 223 of the Constitution in the first six months was mainly towards other operating expenses and the buyback of an International Sovereign Bond.

The Controller of Budget approved Sh115.11 billion, comprising Sh8.66 billion for development expenditure and Sh106.44 billion for recurrent expenditure, representing two per cent of the gross estimates.

“Of the total exchequer issues under Article 223 of the Constitution, issuance of an International Sovereign Bond for liability management operations received Sh86.29 billion, representing 75 per cent of the total requests,” she said.

The CoB has since recommended collaboration of all stakeholders in implementation of Electronic Government Procurement System by both staff and suppliers, and technical support to fast-track procurement of the planned activities.

She has also urged the National Treasury to automate the exchequer process for all the votes to foster efficiency and effectiveness in budget implementation.

“The CoB recommends adopting sound planning, budget practices, and effective expenditure management by prioritising essential services and aligning them with operational realities during budget formulation and implementation. This will reduce the use of Article 223 of the Constitution on budget items that were foreseeable during the budget process and could not be accommodated during the sector working groups due to resource constraints,” she stated. A review of the recurrent expenditure shows that Sh337.63 billion was spent on compensation to employees, representing 38 per cent of the gross recurrent expenditure by Ministries, Departments and Agencies and 25 per cent of the national government’s equitable share of the revenue raised nationally, which is in line with the Regulation 26(1) (a) of the Public Finance Management (National Government) Regulations 2015.

The regulations set a limit that compensation to employees should not exceed 35 per cent of the national government’s equitable share of the revenue raised nationally and other revenues generated by the national government pursuant to Article 209(4) of the Constitution.

Total current transfers to other government institutions were Sh348.79 billion and subsidies of Sh56.7 billion, representing 40 per cent and 7 per cent of the gross recurrent expenditure, respectively.

As of December 31, last year, she said the public debt stock stood at Sh12.29 trillion, comprising Sh5.46 trillion owed to external lenders (44 per cent) and Sh6.82 trillion due to domestic lenders (56 per cent).