Council of Governors opposes new budget ceilings, withdraw support for the senate

The Council of Governors is withdrawing its support for the Senate after the Upper House went against the wish of governors in raising the budget ceilings for county assemblies.

The governors will also move to court to oppose the new budget ceilings that they say will affect development in the counties. The new budget ceilings allocated an extra Sh2.5 billion to county assemblies.

"The Senate that was supposed to be a defender of public resources in the counties has now gone against the wishes of the people in giving more money to MCAs which will go towards funds for unnecessary trips, buying of vehicles and ipads," Peter Munya, the chairman of the Council of Governors, has told the Standard.

Although in their 10-point referendum push governors have been calling for the empowerment of the Senate, Munya said that the latest action by the Senate was an act by a House that does not want their support.

"We have been very sympathetic with the senate but they keep on shooting themselves in the foot. We are now stopping our support for them since they have clearly shown the public that they do not need to exist," he said during the interview.

Munya said that they will distance themselves from current calls for a referendum to strengthen the Senate which despite being the Upper House has less power than the National Assembly, the Lower House.

"They have gone against recommendations by CRA ,have not explained on how we will get that amount of money and have provided no scientific method that has been applied to arrive at the allocation," Munya said.

According to the Public Finance Management Act, the Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA) recommends to the Senate budgetary ceilings on the recurrent expenditures of each county government.

Earlier in the year, the CRA came up with a scientific calculation that provides for allocation of resources both to the national and county governments.

However, the CRA says that it was not consulted by the Senate when it reviewed the budget ceilings.

In a brief obtained by the Standard, CRA states, “In reviewing these ceilings, the Senate only consulted the Counties Assemblies Forum and not the CRA."

CRA further states, “The decision on increasing the ceiling by Sh2.5 billion is not clear and the Senate has not indicated where the additional allocation of Sh2.5 billion will come from."

The commission questions the criteria used by the Senate to share the Sh2.5 billon among 34 counties. It gives a comparison between Marsabit and Turkana counties.

“The ceiling for Turkana of Sh978 million is almost twice that on Marsabit of Sh533 million. There are some comparable similarities between Turkana and Marsabit. Land Area (68, 680 sq.km; 70,961 sq.km); wards (30:20); MCAs (33; 47), respectively. The operational costs should not be substantially different. Though the population of Turkana is about thrice that of Mrsabit,(855,399;291,166) respectively, this should not affect the costs of the county assembly," It says in the brief.

Munya cites his county as one of the examples in which development expenditure has been affected by the action by the Senate.

"Whereas the CRA allocated county assembly Sh687, 533,331 million, the Senate has revised the allocation to Sh839, 515,604 Million meaning that an extra Sh150 million will have to come from the development budget so as to support the county assembly," Munya says.

The Chairman of the Governors warns that the allocation is unsustainable.

"For the avoidance of doubt I would like to reiterate that the amount is unsustainable given the advice gotten through consultative process at IBEC by the Commission on Revenue Allocation, Controller of Budget and the citizens," Munya says.

He adds, "Most county governments have completed developing their budgets and readjusting the budgets will mean recalling all county appropriation Bills so as to start the process of public participation a fresh because the public was consulted based on the CRA ceilings and gave their recommendations based on the CRA ceilings."

He accuses the Senate of overstepping its mandate by "trying to develop budgets for counties which is not their mandate."

"We suggest that the Senate ceilings wait for the next financial year of 2016/17 to allow for adequate consultations," he told the Standard.

In February, at a meeting held in Mombasa governors and senators agreed to work together in an effort to end a tumultuous two years of co-existence punctuated by impeachment motions.

Last month, the Senate announced that it was establishing a nine-month Select Committee to probe the move by the National Assembly to reallocate Sh1 billion from their oversight kitty.

“That kitty does not have proper legal framework to guide its use and thus would never have been spent for a whole financial year," National Assembly Budget Committee chairman Mutava Musyimi said on Wednesday at a function in his Mbeere South constituency.