National Assembly Committees To Begin Consideration Of The 2024/25 Supplementary Estimates No.1
National Assembly
By PSCU
The Speaker of the National Assembly, Moses Wetang’ula has directed Departmental Committees and the Budget and Appropriations Committee to commence consideration of the Supplementary Estimates No. 1 for the 2024/25 financial year.
This follows submission of the Supplementary Estimates (No.1) by the National Treasury for consideration by the House.
The Supplementary Estimates seek to rationalize the 2024/25 Budget Estimates to align to the Revised Fiscal Framework and actualize expenditure cuts across the three arms of Government, Constitutional Commissions and Independent Offices.
Notably, the Budget was to be funded through additional revenue measures amounting to KSh.344.3billion contained in the Finance Bill, 2024, which was not assented to. This created a financing gap of a similar amount and implies that funding of expenditures to the tune of KSh.344.3billion is not tenable.
The FY 2024/25 Supplementary Estimates No.1 has therefore been prepared pursuant to Article 223 of the Constitution and Section 44 of the Public Finance Management Act, 2012 (PFMA) CAP 412A.
The Supplementary Estimates seek to address;
Rationalization of the Budget Estimates to align to the Revised Fiscal Framework; and Realignment of the Budget to cater for the FY 2023/24 Carry Overs.
Through a notification to members of the National Assembly dated last Friday the Speaker has directed that the Supplementary Estimates and all attendant documents submitted by National Treasury be referred to the Budget and Appropriations Committee and the Departmental Committees for expedited consideration.
Key highlights of the supplementary estimates are; Ministerial Expenditure has decreased by 6.6 per cent from the original approved Ministerial Budget Estimates, The Recurrent Expenditure has decreased by 2.1% while the Development Expenditure has decreased by 16.4%. This is within the allowable threshold for variation of a Supplementary Budget from the original Budget as appropriated by Parliament in accordance with the requirement of the Public Finance Management Act, (PFMA) CAP 412A.
The change in the National Government Ministerial Budget (excluding Consolidated Fund Services and County Transfer Allocation) from the original approved Ministerial Budget is a decrease of Ksh156.4 billion which reflects a 6.6% reduction. The reduction is on account of budget rationalization.
The total gross change of the Ministerial Estimates, County Sharable Transfer Allocation and Consolidated Fund Services (interest, pension, salaries for State Officers and Net lending) amounts to a reduction of KSh. 121.9 billion or 1.9% decrease. This is within the provisions of Article 223 of the Constitution.
The Speaker also directed the Clerk of the National Assembly, Mr. Samuel Njoroge to notify all members of the National Assembly and publish the Supplementary Estimates and all attendant documents submitted by the National Treasury on the parliamentary website,
“In line with the current austerity measures and the expenditure reductions, the attendant sittings of Committees are held within the precincts of Parliament. Should the available meeting rooms be inadequate, any affected Committee(s) is to hold its sittings in other government facilities,” stated Wetang’ula.
The Departmental Committees are expected to engage with Ministries, State Departments and Agencies to review the Supplementary Estimates next week.
The Budget and Appropriations Committee is also required to guide the process, seek public views and report to the House on or before Wednesday, 24th July, 2024, to enable the National Assembly to subsequently consider the Supplementary Estimates and the Supplementary Appropriation legislation so as to give effect to the Revised Fiscal Framework and the proposed expenditure reductions.
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