National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Njuguna Ndung’u has outlined far-reaching policy measures to control public sector expenditures, including curtailing spending across the government.
While presenting the 2024-25 budget highlights, Ndung’u said the government will rationalize all allocations for the purchase of motor vehicles. He emphasized that the government will suspend the purchase of furniture, refurbishment, and partitioning of government offices for one year, starting in the financial year beginning July 1.
The CS highlighted that the government will also freeze spending on foreign travels and rationalize all training expenses across the government. He stated that all training would be restricted to within government institutions to cut costs further.
Moreover, Ndung’u announced that the government would stop any employment of staff joining the public service in the next year to control runaway recurrent expenditures. “There will be a suspension of all new recruitment in the public sector for the next one year,” he said.
During this suspension of employment, the government will conduct an audit and cleanse all public payrolls. The aim is to eliminate ghost workers and enforce the payment of salary scales approved by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission.
Additionally, the government will seek to minimize expenditures by leveraging technology. Government agencies will be stopped from investing surplus funds and will be required to enforce the requirements of the PFM Act 2012 and PFM Regulations 2015. The law mandates that the State Agencies and Government Authorities (SAGAs) surrender surplus funds to the exchequer.
These measures are part of the government’s broader strategy to streamline public sector expenditures and ensure fiscal discipline.