The assertions made by Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakang’o that the National Treasury had overbudgeted her salary by three times and, consequently, the salaries of other State officers have been minimized by National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Prof. Njuguna Ndung’u.
In his Monday speech to the National Dialogue Committee, Prof. Ndung’u stated that he had already sent the case to the Auditor General to gather more information.
“I refer such matters to the auditor general when they are brought to my attention. This has already been brought up with the auditor general. The CS stated, “You are not allowed to remark until you have given the facts.
“We don’t want to have that kind of connotation that corruption has become institutionalized,” he continued. If this were indeed happening, it would be theft of public cash. We distribute funds following the budget.”
The Controller of Budget described in detail how the Treasury has been overbudgeting senior government officials’ wages through the Consolidated Fund Services during his Tuesday appearance before the National Dialogue Committee last week.
Treasury initially allocated Ksh.17.82 million for her yearly compensation, which alarmed her office because it was significantly more than she was receiving.
Treasury would only lower it to Ksh.10.15 million, but even so, that sum was more than her yearly pay of Ksh.9.18 million.
The President and his deputy’s wages and benefits were also planned by the Treasury at Ksh.42.4 million, but their actual gazetted salaries are Ksh.32.05 million, a Ksh.10.35 million discrepancy.
Nyakang’o claims that the majority of the impacted high government officials are unaware of the disparities and that she only learned about the oddity because it directly affected her.
To close the gap created by what she refers to be planned corruption, she is demanding an audit of the matter conducted right away.
