- The former nominated MP could be seen receiving a brief from his two Principal Secretaries Chris Kiptoo and James Muhati.
-
The swearing in followed the approval of the nominees Thursday by parliament.
Image: CHRIS KIPTOO/X
Newly appointed Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi has officially assumed his role at the Treasury building.
Mbadi arrived at the offices moments after being sworn in as the next CS to succeed Njuguna Ndung’u who was dismissed.
The former nominated MP could be seen receiving a brief from his two Principal Secretaries Chris Kiptoo and James Muhati.
Ndung’u was, however, a no-show to hand over the office.
He was later taken on a tour of other offices within the building by senior officials from the ministry while in the company of the two PSs.
"We welcomed him as our team leader and assured him of our maximum support and cooperation," said Kiptoo.
President William Ruto presided over the swearing-in ceremony at State House Nairobi that saw 19 CSs including 10 who were in the last cabinet take oath of office.
The swearing-in followed the approval of the nominees Thursday by parliament.
The former ODM-nominated MP served as the chair of the powerful Public Accounts Committee, which is responsible for holding to account ministries, departments and agencies.
During his vetting, Mbadi vowed to use his experience spanning several years to come up with new policies to support the government.
On the rejected Finance Bill, 2024, he said there should not be no cause for worry.
He noted that the government still has options in terms of revenue collection that do not involve re-introducing the entire punitive document that the public rejected.
Mbadi said there were good provisions in the rejected Bill which he intends to bring as amendments to parent Bills, an indication of a possible Tax (Amendments) Bill, soon.
Image: CHRIS KIPTOO/X
The nominee said the main issue that led to the downfall of the Finance Bill was inadequate public participation and communication was not done effectively.
“I believe there are good provisions that have been lost in the Finance Bill (2024) that are not contentious, and we can bring them as specific amendments with proper public participation. The problem we had was that the public felt they were not listened to,” he said.
Mbadi also pointed out that the Finance Bill typically contains only a few tax amendments, which he promised to address through dedicated statutes if appointed.
He further stated that he would introduce a new accounting system to help address the issue of pending bills if approved.
He was answering a question about plans to address the problem that has been observed over the years, particularly in the counties.
National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetangula had stressed that some individuals were paying bribes to have their pending bills prioritised.
"You remember about eight years ago, there was a committee verify pending bills, it became a toll station and it was all doing was to go to a town like Eldoret pitch in a hotel and people with so-called pending bills turned up with briefcases and have their pending bills approved," Wetangula he said.
He said while the Public Finance Management Act provides that pending bills should be prioritised, there is a need to criminalise the failure of some government entities to pay.
"I will make sure that we have a system in place which locks anyone who attempts to pay a new bill and ignores an old one...the system can lock you out, so that first in first out. If a bill is supposed to be payable let it be paid," he stated.
Acknowledging that pending bills were a matter of grave concern, Mbadi alleged that most of them were fictitious.
He pointed out that the pending bills verification committee chaired by Edward Ouko has so far received over Sh663 billion claims.