The country’s economy has stabilised and is on a positive trajectory, with an overall performance of 90 percent in the just-ended 2022–2023 financial year, where the government collected and disbursed a total of Sh3.24 trillion out of the revised estimate of Sh3.62 trillion.
National Treasury Principal Secretary (PS) Dr. Chris Kiptoo said that this means they only failed to collect Sh380 billion of the target despite the difficult environment.
“Being one year since the last election and the Cabinet Secretary (CS) being in office for around 10 months, the National Treasury and the economy in general have performed very well considering that we have had an environment of many shocks from the election uncertainties, the lag effects of COVID-19, effects of the Russia-Ukraine war and the climate shocks leading to drought,” said Dr. Kiptoo.
Addressing the press during the Salaries and Remuneration (SRC) announcement of salary increments for public officers, Dr. Kiptoo said that from the collection, they disbursed 100 percent of equitable share to the County governments, amounting to Sh. 400 billion, which also included an arrears of Sh. 30 billion that was incurred in July since it was not paid the previous year.
According to Dr. Kiptoo, they disbursed the entire amount of allocation for the National Government Constituency Development Fund (NG-CDF) of Sh47.2 billion.
“We also funded all arrears to Orphans and Vulnerable Children totaling Sh16 billion and we have a directive from the president that these funds will have to be paid together with salaries of public servants or even earlier than salaries and we have started in the month of July,” explained the PS.
He added that the country has done well in fully paying its debt service and has not defaulted, and they do not intend to.
“In the month of July, we paid heavily on external payments, including Sh63 billion to the EXIM Bank of China,” said the PS.
He explained that they had an underfunding of about Sh77 billion in form of pending bills, with the National Treasury Cabinet Secretary (CS) Prof. Njuguna Ndung’u ordering all accounting officers to make the pending bills their first charge because the government is not going to tolerate accumulation of pending bills.
“Next week, the CS will be gazetting a pending bills committee to look at the historical pending bills,” said the PS.
He explained that the government’s efforts to make timely payments have received accolades from several stakeholders, like the Clerk of the National Assembly.
“I received an SMS from the Clerk of the National Assembly saying that they closed the year 2022/2023 having settled most bills, including members’ constituency items and mileage claims, which is unprecedented with the National Assembly also closing the year with the least amount of pending bills in the last nine years,” said Dr Kiptoo.
On pensions’ payment, the PS explained that in the financial year that has just ended, they successfully met their commitments to the Public Service Superannuation Scheme (PSSS) by remitting the employer portion of contributions and this reinforces sustainability of the crucial pension system that was launched in January 2021.
“While members of the scheme contributed Sh11 billion, the government contributed Sh2.6 billion. The government has also disbursed an additional Sh51.6 under the old defined pension scheme towards lump sum payments of pensions,” said Dr. Kiptoo.
He added that the government has also maintained the timeliness of monthly pension disbursements for the 328,879 pensioners currently enrolled in the pension payroll.
“According to Dr. Kiptoo, as of July 31, 2023, all monthly pension payments have been distributed promptly, with the government disbursing Sh65.51 billion for monthly pensions during the fiscal year 2022-2023,” said the PS.
He explained that this demonstrates the government’s resolve to provide financial relief to pensioners who dedicated their careers to public service.
“Effective July this year, the government has implemented a biannual three percent increase to the pension pay. This enhancement reinforces our commitment to enhancing the wellbeing of pensioners in the face of evolving economic circumstances,” said Dr. Kiptoo.
He added that in the current financial year, the National Treasury will reengineer the pension payment system by implementing an end-to-end enterprise resource planning solution that will fully automate the entire pension payment system as part of the broader government digitization transformation agenda.
Dr. Kiptoo said that this move is geared towards drastically reducing the turnaround time for settling pension claims for retired public servants.
By Joseph Ng’ang’a
