By the end of the first quarter of 2020/21, national government ministries, department and agencies (MDAs) managed to utilize 23% of their approved budget of Ksh 2.69 trillion. This means that about 2% (Ksh 53.8 billion) remained unspent. Overall performance in government spending in 2018/19 was however marginally better, by two percentage points than in 2019/20. Performance. 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. The three least performers, with the highest proportion of unspent funds, over 15%, are Agriculture, Rural and Urban Development, Social Protection, Culture and Recreation and Education sectors in that order implying poor results in service delivery to citizens. 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 projection’s donor disbursements in subsequent financial years for more accurate budget planning and develop a contingency plan to address a potential deepening of the economic shock due to higher level of uncertainty with regards to increased debt defaults. 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
