No free newspapers, state officials told

Civil servants will no longer enjoy the benefit reading newspapers bought by taxpayers money among other benefits in austerity measures to cut expenditure.

There will also be a limit to refreshments and travel, with senior officials foregoing chase cars.

Deputy President William Ruto said in Meru at the weekend that they will do away with fuel guzzlers for Cabinet secretaries and cut the number of vehicles that State officials have in their entourage.

“There is no need of having 10 cars in an entourage. All you need is a Passat to get you to the office and back to your house. We must curb the wastage if we have to make people’s lives better,” Mr Ruto said.

He said currently, the government spends an estimated Sh5 million on newspapers. “If you cannot buy your own newspaper, read it on the Internet. We cannot allow wastage on expenditures that do not add value to the lives of the citizens,” he said.

The announcement came against the backdrop of budgetary strains that have seen the President and his deputy announce a pay cut and urge parastatal chief to follow suit.

Senate majority leader Kithure Kindiki said at the same function that he would introduce a motion in the Senate tomorrow that seeks to, among other things, put a cap to the number of trips government officials are allowed to make in any given financial year.

“There is a lot of wastage in the government by people who say they are attending fact-finding missions. If you want to find out how other countries are running projects, go to Google,” he said.
Prof Kindiki said he would also propose a reduction in the number of parastatals.

“Cutting of salaries is not enough. There is a lot of duplication of duties by parastatals. We must reduce some of them if we are to save money,” he said.