Over a ten-day period until mid-December, trade ministry officials led a delegation of 63 officials to Burundi to participate in a trade agreement on micro and small enterprises, costing taxpayers Sh50.6 million.
This comes less than three months after the House of Representatives directed that the size of government delegations to foreign meetings be limited to four members as part of “brutal” spending cuts in an attempt to rein in the fiscal deficit.
Days after the circular on austerity measures was issued, an official from the State Law Office spent Sh630,660 on a four-day trip to Lusaka, Zambia, to launch a report titled “Hermaphroditism in Zambia”.
Just two days later, on September 23, a State Department official for parliamentary affairs embarked on a ten-day trip to Turkey to inspect a lift, a tour that cost taxpayers Sh1.4 million.
Prior to these foreign trips, the Ministry of Youth Affairs sent an official to attend the World Dwarf Games on July 26 and September 21, 2023. Each trip costs taxpayers Sh735,102.
These are just the highlights of a damning report that exposes lavish spending on foreign trips by public officials – often involving lavish travel allowances and huge government delegations.
The billions of shillings spent on foreign travel indicate that senior public servants, including cabinet ministers, principal secretaries and chief executives of parastatals, are defying two circulars issued in July and October that ordered significant cuts in government officials’ overseas travel.
This included limiting the size of delegations and eliminating non-essential travel to ensure the government could generate savings and fund its programmes without relying heavily on debt.
In a circular issued by the head of the civil service, Felix Koski, in October 2023, the government limited the number of delegations led by heads of state to three, delegations led by heads of the public sector to one delegation and those led by heads of state companies to one delegation, with the requirement that delegations include “the most relevant technical persons”.
However, the budget watchdog revealed that despite this directive, public officials continued to travel around the world.
During the year to June, the national government’s total travel expenses (domestic and foreign) rose by 35 per cent to Sh27 billion.
Overseas travel expenditure rose by 46 percent to Sh9.2 billion.
“A significant portion of the travel budget was spent on non-core categories, such as training and benchmarking,” says Margaret Nyakang, CEO of CBO. “This spending pattern suggests that the circular was not fully adhered to.”
In a report on the government’s budget execution, the budget office says that government officials continued to make unnecessary foreign trips during the fiscal year, receive large delegations, and often had multiple agencies collide at the same event abroad.
“Multiple trips to the same destinations by different government departments indicate a lack of coordination, leading to redundant travel. For example, multiple departments travelled to Italy and France for similar purposes, incurring avoidable costs,” she says.
The government has suspended travel for assessment, study, training, public conferences, and travel by low-level employees, as well as non-essential foreign travel.
The circular also specified the number of days that officials must stay outside the country at seven days per trip, 15 days per quarter, and a maximum of 45 days per year.
“In contrast, the National Treasury and Economic Planning Department has been directed to rationalise all external and internal travel budgets fairly by 50 per cent,” the OBR notes.
The budget committee says lax enforcement of the directives has seen the government spend Sh9.19 billion on overseas travel, up from Sh6.33 billion the previous year, while domestic travel cost Sh18 billion, up from Sh14 billion the previous year.
The disregard for the directives came to light after the TRA asked agencies to share details of their foreign trips for a review of compliance with the circular.
“There were discrepancies in the amount reported on travel abroad by economic line compared to the details received,” Dr Nyakang noted.
Among the discrepancies discovered was in President Ruto’s office, which despite reporting that he spent Sh36 million on foreign travel during the year, detailed reports submitted to the budget committee showed that he spent Sh57 million.
Among the notable overseas travel expenses for the Office of the President was the purchase of several air tickets for members of the Presidential Task Force on Religious Organisations travelling to different countries, which cost about Sh10 million.
However, the detailed reports issued by the office do not include details of the president’s visits abroad. However, other offices such as the Office of the Secretary to the Prime Minister have provided details of Musalia Mudavadi’s visits accompanied by the president.
The report said Vice President Rigati Gachagwa spent more on foreign trips than his president, spending Sh114 million on foreign trips.
Mr Gachagwa’s most notable foreign trips include a ten-day trip through Dubai and Germany from October 21 to 31 last year, where his office spent Sh52 million.
“We also noted from the detailed breakdown of overseas travel expenses that many of the payments were for previous financial years, an indication that outstanding invoices relating to overseas travel were being settled, for example, under the Administrative Justice Committee, there were payments made in the 2023/24 financial year for overseas trips made during the 2022/23 financial year,” the report notes.
Dr. Nyakang recommended implementing a strict pre-approval process for all foreign travel and creating a single body to approve them.
“The government should establish a central unit to review and approve all foreign trips across ministries, departments and government agencies to prevent duplication and redundancy. This body would ensure that similar trips undertaken by different departments are consolidated or cancelled, thus reducing unnecessary expenditure.
“This circular represents a decisive shift towards optimising overseas travel expenditure by focusing on essential travel in line with the country’s commitments. However, the success of these guidelines depends on strict implementation, central coordination and regular auditing,” says Dr Nyakang.