State spends billions on flowers and tea

• Some ministries use almost 25 per cent of allocation on hospitality

A government facing a huge budget deficit is spending Sh3.4 billion on items such as flowers, gifts, office tea and questionable meal allowances.

Some ministries are spending as much as 24 per cent of their recurrent budget on what is described as “hospitality supplies” and reimbursement of personal allowances.

Inquiries by the Daily Nation at the Immigration ministry revealed that hospitality supplies budget covers purchase of office flowers, gifts, tea and other catering services.

Meal allowance

According to the Office of the Ombudsman, a lot of money is also going towards meal allowances, an entitlement that has been grossly abused by public servants.

Letters by Mr Ken Mwige, the executive director of the Public Complaints Standing Committee (Ombudsman), to permanent secretaries questioning payment of meal allowances show that government regulations stipulate that the allowance is only payable to officers travelling away on duty, but who do not spend a night outside their work stations.

The Daily Nation has seen documents which show that public servants have been routinely claiming the money every month — whether or not they travel out of their offices.

The whole system is open to abuse because payments are hard to audit due to the fact that claims are generated and processed by the very officers who benefit from the allowances.

According to regulations, public servants working during weekends or lunch hour or after 5pm are entitled to such allowances. But the regulations also stipulate that extra office hours must not exceed 10 days in a month.

Guidelines issued by Head of Public Service Francis Muthaura say that officers working over lunch hour and evenings should be supplied with meals instead of being paid allowances.

An accounting officer who spoke to the Nation on condition that his name was not revealed because it would jeopardise his work, said he was aware of cases where senior civil servants were taking home an extra Sh100,000 a month in “meal allowances”.

Ministry of Justice permanent secretary Amina Mohamed last year warned that payment of meal allowance had “become unsustainable and subject to abuse”.

“This has been brought about by the misguided belief by most officers that payment of this allowance is their right and an additional source of income,” she wrote in a letter dated October 21, last year, addressed to all heads of department in the ministry.

Of the Sh197 million set aside for the Energy ministry, it has earmarked Sh48.3 million for buying flowers, gifts, office tea and meal allowances. The Ministry for Immigration will spend Sh47.5 million for hospitality this year.

But Mr Kennedy Buhere, a public relations officer at the ministry, denied that public servants have been receiving meal allowances whether they travel or not.