Administration and Internal Security Committee questions expenditure in the Office of the Deputy President

Administration and Internal Security Committee questions expenditure in the Office of the Deputy President

𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬.
𝐓𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲, 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟐𝟔, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒.

The Committee on Administration and Internal Security chaired by Hon. Gabriel Tongoyo (Narok West), has held a meeting with the Office of the Deputy President (ODP) and the State Department for Immigration, regarding the status report on Budget Implementation for the 3rd & 4th Quarters of the Financial Year 2023/2024.

During the meeting, the Principal Assistant Secretary in the ODP Mr. Moses Mbaruku apprised the Committee that the office was allocated Kshs. 4.756 billion, comprising Kshs. 4.356 recurrent and Kshs. 400 million development expenditure.

,"At the end of the financial year, the office spent a total of Kshs. 4.729 billion, representing an absorption of 99.4% of the total allocation," said Mr. Mbaruku.

Further, Mr. Mbaruku noted that various developmental projects were undertaken during the period under review, that involved refurbishment of buildings at Harambee Annex, Karen residence and former PC's office in Mombasa, under the Kshs. 400 million allocation.

The Chair, Hon. Tongoyo further enquired on the status of the refurbishment projects that are being undertaken within the 5-year period upto June 2027, with the report presented indicating that the Harambee Annex is at 22%, Karen residence at 45% and the former PC's office in Mombasa at 21%.

"For instance, the refurbishment of the Karen residence is estimated to cost Kshs. 560 million, but you only got Kshs. 250 million for this financial year and you say the project is 45 percent complete. Is that the correct status of the project?" Asked Hon. Tongoyo.

In a rejoinder, the Vice-chairperson Hon. Dido Rasso also questioned why such hefty amounts are being spent, and if indeed there is value for money in these projects.

In response, Ms. Ann Mwangi, the Director for Planning, detailed some of the areas that have been done and those that are yet to be done on the three projects.

"You realize that the refurbishment of the buildings, both at Harambee Annex and karen residence, as well as Mombasa residence, ran for five years. So when you talk about the estimated value of the project, this is the refurbishment that will go through the five years. And we had quite a number of things that needed to be done. Some have already been done, others have not," she replied.

Separately, the State Department for Immigration in their report, submitted an allocation of Kshs. 8.85 billion for recurrent, and Kshs. 3 billion development expenditure, out of which they spent Kshs. 8.78 billion in recurrent and Kshs. 3.9 billion in development expenditure.

Some of the key achievements by the State Department during the period under review include implementing the Presidential directive on visa free regime by operationalizing the Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA), acquisition of two high end Passport Personalization printers, issuance of 539,810 e-passports, 28,121 work permits, 186,892 Temporary Permits, 566,294 visas and 666,475 ETAs.

Further, the State Department collected revenue totaling Kshs. 17.4 billion through its various services, out of which Kshs. 1.7 billion was retained to defray expenditure; Kshs. 750 million being for development and Kshs. 950 million for development expenditure.