Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani has refuted claims that the government had only Ksh.93 million in its accounts when the new administration took office.
According to Yatani, the government does not collect money, keep it in one place for a month, and then distribute it after a month or a year.
While addressing the senators at their induction retreat in Naivasha on Thursday, CS Yatani condemned the allegations as utter “ignorance” and condemned the legislators for peddling lies with little information about how the Treasury operates.
“Sometimes we as leaders argue out of ignorance. Immediately after the election, some leaders were saying the Treasury did not have money, it was Ksh.92 million that was found. I feel very sympathetic because there is a lot of ignorance about the situation,”Yatani said.
While implying that the Treasury could be nearly empty on any given day, Yatani stated that revenue collected by the government is spent immediately.
“Government does not collect money, store it in one place and then distribute it after one month or year, we raise revenue on a daily basis and fund the government on a daily basis,” he said.
He went on to explain the recent disbursement delays in counties, pointing out that they were caused by low revenue turnout across the country.
“There are a number of competing needs so the performance of revenue can sometimes be challenged whereby you make a projection to raise a certain amount of money and end up raising less,” said the CS.
“The low revenue raised nationally impacts our disbursement not only in the counties but also to the rest of the government,” he added.
This comes after some Kenya Kwanza leaders, including Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei, claimed to have discovered only Sh93 million in the Treasury.
Ironically, Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua flagged off the first consignment of the Sh3.55 billion subsidised fertiliser on Thursday.
While implying that the Treasury could be nearly empty on any given day, Yatani stated that revenue collected by the government is spent immediately.
At the same time, CS Yatani challenged the Senators to strengthen their county revenue collection mechanisms in order to avoid overreliance on Treasury allocations at the expense of their own source revenue.
