KAKAMEGA: Operations in most counties may be forced to halt for sometime following failure by the national government to disburse county funds in time.
Governor Wycliffe Oparanya, who is the Council of Governors (CoG) chairman in charge of finance, said county governments are faced with numerous financial challenges, owing to late disbursement of funds.
He said county governments have not received funds for development and have not paid suppliers since May this year.
"We have not received funds meant for development and for paying suppliers since May this year. We only received money for salaries," said Oparanya.
The governor blamed the national government for using Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS) to frustrate county operations.
He said the Government closed it's IFMIS system on June 20, 2015, thus denying county governments access to their cash, currently lying at the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK).
"Since the financial system was closed towards the end of the last financial year, financial flows to counties has been stopped and this has forced us to forward pending bills to the curent financial year," he said.
NEW DEMANDS
Oparanya noted that county governments are now being forced to prepare a supplementary budget to cater for pending bills, which although were forwarded to the new financial year, were not captured in the 2015-2016 budget.
He also accused the national government of issuing new demands to county governments, saying the demands may complicate matters further.
"We have received a short notice that each county government should develop and upload its procurement plan in the system. CBK is also changing its operations to internet banking, which require us to sign a contract first. These new demands will derail county governments," he said.
He asked the Government to offer training to county financial staff before issuing the new demands, saying it will be difficult for staff at the county level to operate the new system if they lack knowledge and skills.
He confirmed that Kakamega County is among the worst affected by the delays in releasing the funds.
"County staff are not trained on financial management, we are faced with audit queries that taxpayers' money was misused or not accounted for. Kakamega is faced with financial challenges because we were forced to transfer over Sh400 million meant to pay suppliers to the new financial year as pending bills," Oparanya said.
All county governments have their bank accounts at CBK, where they bank all the money from the Government. However, they are unable to access the money after IFMIS operations were closed.
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For them to access their funds in either their recurrent or development accounts, they have to prepare a budget, which again have to be approved by the county assembly.
The Controller of Budget checks if the budget complies with the laid down regulations before it is approved to allow county governments to make requests to CBK, to get the funds again through the CoB.
"County governments are subjected to all these procedures to ensure the Government can trace cash flow to the relevant hands. But we are asking to be allowed to access money on time. It should also train our finance officers," he said.
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