Governor, MCAs in budget standoff as fresh row hits Bomet County

Bomet governor Isaac Ruto speaking during Kisumu governor Jack Ranguma's homecoming ceremony at Otieno Oyoo high school in Kisumu county on 6 May 2015. [Photo/COLLINS ODUOR/STANDARD]

 

Bomet Governor Isaac Ruto is involved in yet another spat with Members of the County Assembly (MCAs) over the management of the development vote in the county’s budget.

The fresh row was ignited by Ruto’s decision to reject the 2015/2016 Appropriation Bill passed by the assembly three weeks ago, leading to renewed altercations that have once again sucked in politicians in Deputy President William Ruto’s United Republican Party (URP).

Governor Ruto accuses the MCAs of overstepping their mandate by attempting to take over the functions of the executive. “The mandate of the assembly as provided for in law is representation, legislation and oversight, while public service and implementation of development projects lies with the executive,” Ruto said.

His attempts to reach out to the MCAs to unlock the stalemate failed after the county representatives rejected his invitation for a meeting to deliberate on the issue.

Geoffrey Kipng’etich, the County Speaker, told The Standard on Sunday  that the MCAs’ decisions on the Appropriation Bill was backed by law and key state organs.

“The assembly had been allocated a ceiling of Sh446 million by the Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA) but on consultation, the Senate raised the figure to Sh489 million,” Kipng’etich said.

The genesis of the feud is Ruto’s failure to approve the decision by the MCAs to allocate themselves Sh166 million over and above the ceilings provided by CRA. The MCAs allocated the assembly Sh113 million to purchase land for the Speaker’s official residence, in addition to constructing a new chamber and committee meeting rooms.

Part of the funds will pay for landscaping grounds where the national assembly is housed in addition to constructing pavements and a perimeter wall. Solar Panels will also be purchased for the assembly. In the Appropriation Bill, the MCAs overshot the ceiling on recurrent expenditure set by CRA by Sh43 million.

Whereas the ceiling was set at Sh446 million, the MCAs allocated themselves Sh489 million.

The MCAs had also created a conditional monetary allocation of Sh11 million for each ward and rejected altogether or slashed by a big margin some of the vote-heads in the budget allocated by the executive for development projects, operations and maintenance.

Austerity measures

The assembly also reduced allocation for the completion of the construction of the Bomet Stadium by Sh45 million, leaving only Sh5 million of the Sh50 million initially allocated. An allocation of Sh69 million for the purchase of 12 vehicles was also slashed by the MCAs. Instead, they approved the purchase of two vehicles for Sh11 million.

Governor Ruto wrote a memorandum to the assembly rejecting the Bill three weeks ago. But the Speaker rejected the memorandum, saying the reasons raised by the executive in rejecting the Bill were inadequate.

In the memorandum, the governor said a supplementary budget would be tabled in the assembly in September, seeking to raise more funds for development projects.

“We have taken care of the issues raised during a joint meeting between the executive and MCAs by allocating Sh25 million for the development of springs, Sh25 million for support of youth programmes and Sh19 million for roads,” Ruto said.

“Overall, the supplementary budget to be presented to the assembly in September will have 52 per cent development expenditure, while 36 per cent of the funds is  personnel emoluments, and 12 per cent is for operations and maintenance. The executive intends to save Sh185 million from operations and maintenance, Sh165 million from personal emoluments  and channel it to roads, water, urban planning, and medical services,” Ruto said.

Push and pull

Following the Speaker’s rejection of the governor’s memo, Ruto hit back, saying the stipulation by the law that 65 per cent of MCAs vote to reject a memorandum was not met.

“It is only the Speaker who made sweeping decisions on behalf of the MCAs. Let it be known that I will be in this for the long haul and I would not be cowed as long as I am still the Bomet governor. The interests of the people who elected us come first,” Ruto said.

This push and pull between the executive and the assembly seems to have taken a political dimension with at least three MPs supporting the decision by the MCAs to allocate themselves development funds.

MPs Ronald Tonui (Bomet Central) and Bernard Bett (Bomet East) have accused the governor of double-speak. The leaders argue that it was dishonest for Ruto to push the national government for more funds to counties, then reject MCAs push for  development funds.

“How does he want the national government to devolve more funds and on the other hand oppose a move to allocate ward development funds in the county budget?” Bett posed.

Bomet Woman Representative Cecilia Ng’etich wants the two arms of government to end the stalemate, and says the continued push and pull would hold up development programmes.

Deputy Speaker Joyce Korir said   the assembly was quite in order when it set aside conditional allocation for development in the wards.

Singorwet Ward MCA Evelyn Langat said Ruto’s memorandum would be rejected by the Assembly.

“The governor should have consulted the assembly before forwarding the memo as the issues raised in the document are not satisfactory for the MCAs to change course at this time,” Mrs Langat said.

But five MCAs — Robert Serbai (Embomos),Robert Metet (Silibwet/Township) Stephen Changmorik (Longisa), Henry Bett (Boito) and William Mosonik (Mogogosiek) — have also broken ranks with the Speaker over the allocation in the Appropriation Bill.

“The 52 per cent of the budgetary allocations for the executive to undertake development will not be rolled back. According to the law, it is the mandate of the executive to conduct development,” said Serbai.