The government has faced the reality that over dependence on donors in budget allocation is a big problem as supporters have often not disbursed most of what they promised in 2013/2014 budget.
As the new financial year starts in the next three weeks all government ministries except the ministry of Works have not received even half of the 2013/2014 budgeted funds, thanks to donors failure to meet their promises.
Ministry of Livestock Development and Fisheries was the most hit as it received only Sh3.881bn, being 13.4 percent of the Sh28.973bn budget followed by the ministry of Defence which received only Sh49.378bn being 20 percent of the budgeted Sh245.58bn.
Ministry of Education and Vocational Training received only Sh14.921bn which is 20.5 percent of their budget of Sh72.598 bn for the 2013/2014 financial year. Ministry of Gender, Community and Children got Sh2.923 bn, 24.54 percent of the Sh 11.91 budget.
Ministry of Information, Youth, Culture and Sports also received only Sh4.327 bn out of the Sh12.7bn budget for the year as Lands, Housing and Human Settlements ministry got Sh47.94 bn being 44.25 percent of the Sh72.17 bn budget.
Ministry of Infrastructure got Sh201.21bn being 47.84 percent of Sh420.52bn while ministry of Energy and Minerals were given only Sh577.7 bn out of the budget 1.17 trillion. Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives got Sh40.83 bn being 50 percent of the Sh81.04 bn budget.
It is only Works ministry that got little higher but not sufficient funds as it was given Sh604.5bn being 71.84 percent of the Sh845.125bn budget allocated to the ministry. Other ministries, according to the government got below 40 percent of their budget.
The matter rose in the parliament this week and MPs wanted the government to explain as to why more than half of the development budget for the ministry had not been released.
Deputy Minister for Finance, Adam Malima used every word possible to convince the aggrieved legislators that the government had done its part and it was the some of the donor community members that failed to keep their promises both in cash and in kind.
Malima admitted that over dependence on donors was a problem and that though some ministries budget for the 2014/2015 financial year seems to have been reduced, it was due to the fact the government was trying to be realistic.
He noted that donors through General Budget Support (GBS) and Basket Fund were expected to contribute less to the ministry's budget in the next fiscal year.
Malima was responding to Ms Cecilia Paresso (Special Seats-Chadema) who had raised concern over a decrease in budget allocation to the ministry of Finance from Sh753bn for the ending fiscal year to Sh622.9bn for the next financial year.
Also Paresso wanted the government's commitment in releasing the rest of the monies that were to be spent in the 2013/14 fiscal year for the ministry's development projects.
“The government is ready to reduce over dependence on donors in budget allocations by pulling more resources from domestic sources, following a bad experience in the fiscal year ending this month.” the deputy minister said.
He added that in the ending fiscal year the government had estimated to release Sh282.5bn from domestic sources out of which Sh248.8bn had been released by last month to the ministry.
Malima added: "However, it should be noted that Sh471bn was to be sourced from development partners but only Sh120bn has been released and that is why in the coming fiscal year we are trying to be more realistic by setting a budget which will depend largely on domestic sources,"
Malima said the government could not give its commitment on the matter as much of the monies were to be released by donors.
The Minister without Portfolio, Prof Mark Mwandosya said that the government will contact donors to see what they would release for the remaining time.
Prof Mwandosya, who was speaking as the acting head of government affairs in the House, also noted that the government would try to look for possibilities of getting funds even from other sectors and channel them to health sector given the sensitivity of the sector in people's lives.
Earlier, the Minister in the Prime Minister's Office (Coordination, Policy and Parliament Affairs), William Lukuvi noted that the government will give more commitments after discussing various suggestions with the budget committee.
"Social services committee has made various suggestions to improve the Ministry of Health's budget estimates but these matters will be discussed for six days from Thursday (today) with the budget committee where conclusions will be communicated in the House," he said.
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