MPs have rejected a request by the National Youth Service (NYS) to be allocated Sh22 billion for its budget for the 2018/2019 financial year due to numerous scandals at the service.
The National Assembly Committee on Labour and Social Welfare which oversees the Ministry of Public Service, Youth and Gender Affairs yesterday said the amount will be slashed and channelled to youth and women enterprise fund.
BUDGET
The committee members who have been examining the budget proposal of the service presented to it last week, said they are not happy with the way NYS has been using public resources.
Addressing reporters at Safari Park Hotel, in Nairobi, the lawmakers led committee chairman Ali Wario said they have agreed to concentrate on constituency based activities that impact on many lives like the youth fund.
“For now we have agreed that we will not approve the requested amount but will scale it down and channel more resources to constituency based activities and other more priority areas,” said the Bura MP.
The MPs however did not say how much they intend to slash from the proposal.
“Our decision has been informed by the concern we have received from the people and the latest scandal at NYS where billions belonging to the public have been stolen,” added Mr Wario.
The ministry had requested for Sh22 billion for its recurrent and development activities.
Homa Bay Woman Rep Gladys Wanga said the decision is one of the actions the committee has taken to start getting things right at NYS.
“We just started our work recently and already there is a scandal. But we have started putting things in place so as to avoid future loss of public funds,” said Ms Wanga, a committee member.
Muhoroni MP James K’Oyoo said the committee will work with the ministry to ensure that proper policies guarding public money are in place and adhered to.
“For now we have reduced the budget because we think there are more priority areas that deserve more budgetary allocation than NYS,” Mr K’Oyoo said.
Last week, the committee threatened not to approve any budgetary allocation to NYS until action is taken against those behind the Sh9 billion scandal.
