Felix Koskei: “If you can do a retreat in Nairobi, why go to Mombasa to do the same thing?” Photo: Twitter.
Just one week after he promised to “crack the whip” over corrupt officials, the head of Kenya’s public service, Felix Koskei, has launched another broadside, calling out wastage and the “glaring misuse of public funds” by the bureaucracy.
Mr Koskei ordered the immediate stoppage of unjustified foreign or domestic travel and directed all government offices to hold their retreats and other out-of-office events within the capital of Nairobi.
“I am ordering all Finance Directors in all Ministries to revise their annual budgets and present the budget cuts,” Mr Koskei said.
He cited meetings away from offices and in luxurious hotels as one of the avenues of wastage.
“If you can do a retreat in Nairobi, why go to Mombasa to do the same thing? We must, from today, henceforth, stop wastage of public funds,” Mr Koskei said.
His directive came a day after the Controller of Budget released a report that exposed wastage in government, with billions of shillings paid to public servants as allowances and air tickets.
In the past nine months alone, the government spent Ksh20.37 billion (A$23 million) on domestic and foreign travel.
“We are not going to continue like this. We might not achieve 100 per cent, but we are saying we are going to tighten the loopholes,” Mr Koskei said.
He added that the revision of departmental budgets would free funds for priority areas.
Mr Koskei also ordered a freeze on the conversion of leave days to money and ordered those who had accumulated more than 200 leave days to go on leave immediately.
“If you have not taken your leave, then do it from tomorrow; there is no more monetising of leave days,” he said.
Nairobi, 3 October 2023
