Budget Department

The Budget Department

The Budget Department is one of the key departments of the National Treasury. It is headed by a Director of Budget with technical officers from the Finance cadre, Economists, Accountants and Administrators. The Department has evolved from a small unit of the Ministry of Finance at independence to a full fledged department in the late 1970s.

Mandate
The department is mandated with the preparation of annual estimates of revenues and expenditures that are laid before Parliament every year for approval. It does also prepare supplementary estimates as the need arises. The Department fulfills a constitutional requirement as per section 100 of the Constitution of Kenya.

Objectives

• Strengthen the budget and reporting system to put in place a more efficient and effective Public Financial Management System.
• Implementation of budget process to conform to the essential principles for sound budget management.
• To introduce a performance perspective to the budget process by aligning expenditure to policy priorities.
• To link planning and policy objectives to budget allocation.
• Restructure the budget so as to fund program areas that can be identified in line with the Economic Recovery Strategy targets

Functions

• Coordination of the preparation and presentation to Parliament of MTEF and Annual Estimates of expenditure.
• Development of broad priorities for allocation of public expenditure and implementing Ministerial Ceiling System.
• Enforcing proper management control, monitoring and evaluation for efficient utilization of budgetary resource to realize value for money.
• Setting up systems for the budget process e.g. GFS classification MTEF Budget.
• Ensuring that allocation of resources is consistent with Government policy priorities.

Budget Process

The formulation and preparation of the Budget involves development and submission of key documents for approval by Cabinet and Parliament. The process is guided by the budget calendar which stipulates timelines for a number of key activities to be undertaken in order to finalize the Budget and submit it for approval by 30^th April of each financial Year. The budget calendar is usually contained in the Treasury circular issued in accordance to Section 36 of the Public Finance Management Act, 2012, providing guidelines on the processes and procedures for preparing the subsequent Financial year and the Medium-Term Budget.

For more information on the key budget process activities and a description of the key documents , click here for downloads.