For 10 days until mid-December, the bosses at the Ministry of Commerce led a delegation of 63 officials to Burundi to deal with trade in small and micro enterprises, setting back taxpayers Sh50.6 million.
This comes less than three months after a State House directive limited the size of government delegations to foreign meetings to four as part of “brutal” cuts to spending in an effort to tackle the fiscal deficit.
The day after the release of the circular on austerity measures, officials from the State Law Office splashed Sh630, 660 on a four-day trip to Lusaka, Zambia to launch a report dubbed “Being Intersex in Zambia”.
Just two days later on September 23, an official from the Department of State for Parliamentary Affairs embarked on a 10-day trip to Turkey to inspect the elevator, a tour that cost taxpayers sh1.4 million.
Before the foreign trip, the State Department of Youth Affairs on July 26 and September 21, 2023 sent officials to attend the World Dwarf Games. Each trip costs taxpayers Sh735,102.
These are just the highlights of a damning report that reveals extravagant spending through overseas travel by public officials – often involving lavish travel allowances and large government delegations.
The billions of shillings poured into foreign travel shows that top public officials, including the Cabinet Secretary (CS), Principal Secretary (PS) and CEOs of parastatals, objected to two circulars issued in July and October that ordered deep cuts in foreign travel government officials.
This includes limiting the size of delegations and eliminating non-essential travel to ensure the government can save and finance the program without relying on debt.
In a circular issued by the Head of Public Service, Felix Koskei, in October 2023, the government limited the delegation led by the CS to three, by the PS to two and one for the head of state companies, while requiring that the delegation must have “the most relevant technical people. .”
However, the Controller of Budget (COB) has revealed that despite the directive, public officials continue to walk the walk.
During the year to June, total travel expenses for the national government (domestic and foreign) increased by 35 per cent to Sh27 billion.
Foreign travel expenses increased by 46 per cent to Sh9.2 billion.
“A lot of the travel budget is used for categories that are not important, such as training and benchmarking. This spending pattern shows that the circular is not fully followed,” notes COB Margaret Nyakang’o.
In a report on the implementation of the national government budget, the COB said that during the fiscal year, government officials continue to make unnecessary foreign trips, take large delegations and often several agencies collide in the same event abroad.
“Perhaps travel to the same destination by different MDAs shows a lack of coordination, resulting in excessive travel. For example, many departments travel to Italy and France for the same destination, with avoidable costs,” he said.
The government suspended travel for benchmarking and study visits, training, public conferences and travel by junior cadre staff, among other non-essential foreign travel.
The circular also caps the number of days an official must be away from the country at seven days per trip, 15 days per quarter and a maximum of 45 days per year.
“The difference is that the National Treasury and Economic Planning are directed fairly with 50 percent of all foreign and local travel budgets,” COB said.
Weakness in the enforcement of the directive, the COB said, saw the government spend Sh9.19 billion on foreign travel, up from Sh6.33 billion a year earlier, while domestic travel cost Sh18 billion, up from Sh14 billion the previous year.
After the COB asked agencies to share their foreign travel details to check compliance with the circular, it ignored the directive.
“Furthermore, there is a discrepancy in the amount reported on foreign travel by economic line vis-a-vis detailed breakdown,” Dr. Nyakang’o noted.
Among the discrepancies detected was in President Ruto’s office, which despite reporting that it had spent Sh36 million on foreign travel during the year, a detailed report given to the COB showed that it had spent Sh57 million.
A significant foreign travel expense for the Office of the President is some air tickets purchased for members of the presidential task force on religious organizations traveling to various countries, which cost about Sh10 million.
The report is detailed from the office, but does not include details of the President’s visits abroad. But other offices such as Prime Cabinet Secretary provided details of Musalia Mudavadi’s visit in the President’s company.
According to the report, Vice President Rigathi Gachagua spent more on foreign travel compared to his leader, as he spent Sh114 million on foreign travel.
Mr Gachagua’s most famous foreign trips included a 10-day return trip to Dubai and Germany between October 21 and 31 last year, where his office spent Sh52 million.
“We also noted from the detailed breakdown of foreign travel expenses that some payments for the previous financial year, as an indication of the clearance of bills related to foreign travel, for example in the Administrative Justice Commission there are payments made in FY 2023 / 24 foreign trips made during the FY 2022/23,” the report notes.
Dr Nyakang’o has recommended the implementation of a strict pre-approval process for all foreign travelers and the creation of a single body to approve.
“The government should create a centralized unit to check and approve all foreign travel in MDAs (ministries, departments and government agencies) to prevent duplication and redundancy. This body will ensure that similar trips by different departments are combined or eliminated, reducing costs unnecessary.
“The circular … presents critical changes to optimize foreign travel expenditure by focusing on essential travel that is in line with the country’s obligations. However, the success of these guidelines depends on strict enforcement, centralized coordination, and periodic audits,” said Dr. Nyakang’o .
