Controller of Budget: How Govt Officials Use Foreign Trips To Steal Public Funds
The CoB however noted that politicians would at times flout the rules set by her office, flagging the foreign trips as the most-common avenue for politicians to steal funds.
Marvin Chege 
Controller of Budget (CoB) Margaret Nyakang'o, on Tuesday, May 30 uncovered how politicians and other government officials used organised benchmarking trips to loot funds from taxpayers.
Nyakang’o cited the trips among three mischievous tactics used by politicians to deliberately and by all means steal from public coffers, despite guidelines and framework put in place by her office to avert similar scenarios.
The CoB however noted that politicians would at times flout the rules set by her office, flagging the foreign trips as the most-common avenue for politicians to steal funds.
“We have seen a lot of foreign travel which is wasteful. Members of County Assemblies (MCAs) go in large groups to foreign countries with no accountability.
Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakang'o. /PEOPLE DAILY
“When they come back, they do not release any reports on what they learnt from where they went,” she indicated.
Nyakang'o further pointed an accusing finger at parliamentarians and other politicians for abusing the car fund reimbursement scheme, giving an example of one who paid millions for an age-old vehicle.
“We have seen distortion of car reimbursement forms. You find someone bringing a 13-year-old car and claim they paid Ksh 4 million.
“Looking at the way requisitions are made you can see a deliberate effort to defraud public funds,” she added.
She then blasted county and national government officials for launching what she termed as ghost projects., and opened up on the steps her office has taken to seal the above loopholes.
“I have seen ghost projects and ghost payees as I carry out my mandate as the Controller of Budget.
“We have drawn up templates that follow the law to guide those who are requisitioning the funds," she assured.
On the templates, Nyakang'o explained that they ensure that funds are asked in a prescribed format which adheres to the Public Finance Management Act and Regulations.
“We have picked all the respective laws and put them in the form of a template. Despite doing all that, it is a fight every single day to get our clients to use the templates,” she added.
On Tuesday, March 7, Nyakang'o grabbed headlines by confessing to being forced to pay Ksh15 billion days leading to the August 9, 2022, General Election, further implicating former Treasury Cabinet Secretary (CS) Ukur Yatani in the mix.
The former CS also asked Nyakang'o on August 4, 2022, to facilitate similar approvals for the infrastructure ministry for amounts of Ksh8 billion and Ksh2 billion and went on to threaten to involve his boss in the event the CoB did not expedite the matter if the approval was not made before 4.00 pm.
This came after Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua vowed to name individuals from former President Uhuru Kenyatta's regime who allegedly stole billions of shillings in the last three months leading up to the elections.
David Ndii, the President’s Economic Advisory Council chairperson, on Monday, April 10 complained regarding the wasteful nature of government and expressed his irritation at how deliberate and unbothered people in the government are wasting public funds.
