Former Mandera Senator Billow Kerow has sensationally claimed that the Treasury bribed the National Assembly Budget Committee Ksh.3 billion to approve a few financial bills.
The ex-legislator, who was speaking at the senators’ induction retreat in Naivasha on Thursday, intimated that the matter raised questions about the integrity of the Treasury and how the implementation of the budget is conducted.
Mr Kerow noted that the matter showed a clear lack of autonomy in the Budget Committee and posed concerns about the ethics behind the process of budget allocation.
“In 2015, the Treasury, which always works in coalition with the National Assembly provided a bribe, and I’ll use that because it was a headline in the local media at that time. The parliamentary committee for budget and appropriations were given Ksh.3 billion so that they can approve some things and we spent a whole afternoon in Senate discussing how could National Assembly accept to be bribed,” he said.
“That shows you the degree at which the Treasury sometimes go to try and influence the legislature in the same way that county governors will try and influence the county assembly so that they can get a few things included.”
Mr Kero further cited that the lack of transparency in the formation of the national budget has been a wrecking impediment, proposing that the process should be conducted with scrutiny for accountability of funds.
“One of the challenges we have had in this country for a long time is transparency. If you remember the Goldenberg scandal that money was in the budget but because of the opaqueness of the budget it could not be detected,” he said.
“Budget transparency is very important and I think it is a matter that I think we should always focus on because items should be itemized and be very clear, and that is what the principles the Public Service Management Act provides.”
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