Treasury CS Ukur Yatani. FILE PHOTO | NMG State corporations held over Sh93.28 billion in surplus cash in the financial year ended June 2018, new data shows, underscoring the Treasury’s recent resolve to turn to them for cash flow support.
Some Sh80.49 billion, an equivalent 86.2 percent of the total, was held by just 17 cash-rich parastatals such as the National Social Security Fund(NSSF), Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen), the National Hospital Insurance Fund(NHIF), Kenya Pipeline Company(KPC), the Communications Authority(CA) and the Kenya Airports Authority(KAA) –the report on revenue and expenditure for state corporations shows.
An analysis shows that after deductions of the salaries and expenses from their revenues, several semi-autonomous agencies held huge reserves.
These include NSSF which led with the highest amount at Sh28.56 billion followed by KPC with Sh8.56 billion, KenGen (Sh8.11 billion), NHIF (Sh6.4 billion), Kenya Re-Insurance Corporation (Sh5.32 billion) and CA (Sh4.51 billion) closing the top six cash-rich slots.
Others moneyed corporations are KAA at Sh3.81 billion, Kenya Deposit Insurance Corporation (Sh2.61 billion).
Interestingly, Kenya Power, which has seen its financial position deteriorate in the last year had Sh1.90 billion to add to the surplus cash pot. The Tourism Fund nearly matched the power utility firms contributions with Sh1.71 billion.
It was followed by Policy Holders’ Compensation Fund (Sh1.57 billion), Kenya Medical Training College (Sh1.46 billion), Geothermal Development Company (Sh1.43 billion), Kenya National Highways Authority (Sh Sh1.27 billion), Higher Education Loans Board (Sh1.08 billion), Kenya Rural Roads Authority(Kerra) (Sh1.06 billion) while Kenya Civil Aviation Authority returned Sh1.05 billion.
The Competition Authority of Kenya closed the list with Sh123.01 million.
State corporations are required by the law to remit surplus funds to the Consolidated Fund every year, rather than keeping the amounts in commercial banks.
But they are not always prompt to comply, which saw the National Treasury in August last year report order all state corporations to surrender balances in their bank accounts.
At the time of the order, among State corporations were in arrears of remittance of surplus funds included Central Bank of Kenya, Kenya Bureau of Standards, CA, the National Environmental Management Authority, Capital Markets Authority and the Insurance Regulatory Authority.The cash surplus order by CS Ukur Yatani was intended to cut the government’s cost of borrowing and inject the monies into development projects.In November, Mr Yatani reported that he had received Sh33 billion, about half of the targeted Sh78 billion at the time. As at February this year, the Treasury had […]
