Parliament questions underutilisation of gov't project funds by state agencies

The Public Accounts Committee has questioned the underutilisation of government project funds, warning that some state agencies are failing to spend their allocations even as other departments struggle with funding shortages.

The committee, chaired by Tindi Mwale, raised the concerns on Tuesday when Information Communication and Technology Principal Secretary John Tanui appeared before it to respond to audit queries in the Auditor-General’s Report for the 2023/2024 financial year.

Members questioned why the State Department for ICT had failed to fully utilise funds allocated to various projects, noting that the Auditor-General had repeatedly flagged the issue.

The committee expressed concern over the apparent mismatch between departments that lack sufficient funding to implement projects and those that fail to use the resources available to them.

One of the projects examined was the Horn of Africa Gateway Development Project, which had an allocation of Sh130 million. However, the National Treasury released only Sh59,035,541, representing approximately 45.4 per cent of the allocated amount.

Tanui told the committee that the ICT Authority had not requested the release of the remaining funds because a substantial amount of money had been carried forward as unutilised funds from the 2022/2023 financial year.

The Principal Secretary also attributed the underutilisation of Sh9,150,580 in remitted funds to delays in road construction by the Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA).

He explained that the installation of optic fibre cables under the ICT component of the project depends on the progress of road construction, meaning delays in roadworks affect the implementation of the digital infrastructure component.

In a separate session, the committee met Blue Economy and Fisheries Principal Secretary Betsy Njagi, who also appeared to respond to audit queries arising from the Auditor-General’s Report for the 2023/2024 financial year.