Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Alliance Presidential flag bearer, Raila Odinga, has devised a way to cap runaway corruption at the National Treasury should he be elected Kenya’s 5th President come August 9.
In his manifesto, the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party leader said he will create a budget office at the State House in his quest to have total control of the budget-making process.
“(We) will establish high-level oversight over fiscal agenda by creating a budget office in the Office of the President,” Odinga said on Monday evening.
The budget office in the Office of the President has been mirrored to resemble that of the White House Budget Office which coordinates policy between the White House and the Treasury.
Should Mr Odinga be elected President, the idea would be to have the Treasury serve as a Ministry of Finance charged with the responsibility of managing debt, payments and accounting issues as the Office of Management of Budget (OMB) handle the entire budget process.
Mr Odinga’s Monday, June 6 announcement comes seven years after President Uhuru Kenyatta stripped the Treasury of its budget-making role in a bid to cap corruption.
In 2015, Uhuru ordered his chief of staff Joseph Kinyua to create an independent Budget Office at the Presidency stating that the office would prepare budgets in collaboration with the Parliamentary Budget Office away from the Treasury.
Uhuru argued that Treasury has been prone to influence-peddling that leads to unnecessary expansion of spending plans.
