Never had I heard the words budget padding” said President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria last month, following sham padding of costs of budgeted items and wholesale injection of questionable items into the budget between when he approved it and when he delivered it. As President Buhari was busy poking looters of public funds out of their holes, budget mafia were busy padding his budget with billions of naira. He later fired the Head of the Budget Office. Padding the budget means making the proposals larger than the actual estimates. This is done by increasing expenses so as to be granted approval for an artificially high level of funding to the budget maker’s proposed projects. Some sort of irresponsible foresight where for example our public officers budget to buy a biro pen at Sh7,000. What Buhari faced in his first budget is what is the norm here in Kenya. Corruption in Kenya’s public sector starts from the budgetary process. Today, much of the graft occurs through the budget process, right under our noses. Both the Executive and Legislature
blatantly allocate public money for themselves or preferred businesses through various machinations with the budget
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