By the end of the fourth quarter of 2019/20, national government ministries, department and agencies (MDAs) managed to utilize 89% of their approved budget of Ksh 2.85 trillion. This means that about Ksh 316.2 billion remained unspent. Overall performance in government spending in 2018/19 was however marginally better, by two percentage points than in 2019/20. Trend analysis for 2016/17 to 2019/20 confirmed, albeit progressive improvement, that the biggest challenge is on uptake of development budget relative to recurrent budget. Despite slip up in performance, uptake of development budget was higher in 2019/20 than in 2018/19. Nearly half of target appropriation in aid was not realized and 34% of donor financed portion of development was not released at all owing to various administrative hurdles including lengthy and complex procurement procedures and unpredictability of off-budget donor funds. To this end, the IEA proposes the need for the government to strengthen revenue forecasting capacity to improve the predictability of public funds; strengthen and enforce reporting of AiA and scale down projections donor disbursements in subsequent financial years for more accurate budget planning. In addition, the reintegration of off-budget donor funds is not only key in enhancing reporting but also overall transparency. These actions are key to averting rise in pending bills, volatility in planning and budgeting, and citizen wellbeing.
