Uasin Gishu County will spend more than 60 per cent of its 2018-2019 budget on salaries.
The county government has allocated Sh5.2 billion for recurrent expenditure (salaries, rent and taxes) and Sh3.2 billion for development.
The county expects to get Sh1.2 billion in local revenue, equitable share of Sh5.9 billion and conditional grants of Sh1.3 billion.
The budget proposals indicate that the lion’s share of the funds will go to paying employees, even as key services suffer cuts.
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Health, education and the youth and gender departments are the biggest casualties of the budget cuts.
The health budget has been cut by Sh26 million while the education allocation is down by Sh34 million.
Initial allocation
Also affected is the roads department, which has been allocated Sh236 million, a drop of 62 per cent from its initial allocation of Sh626 million.
But as essential services suffer cuts, Members of the County Assembly will be laughing all the way to the bank after the budget proposed an increase in recurrent expenditure by 12 per cent. The county assembly allocation has been increased from Sh568 million to Sh638 million.
Public service management has been allocated the largest share of recurrent expenditure (Sh3.3 billion), which is higher than the total county allocation for development.
The budget proposals are, however, yet to undergo public participation.
The largest reductions in development expenditure are in the Cooperative and Livestock Development (82 per cent), and Livestock Development and Fisheries (74 per cent).
Defending the proposals, Finance Executive Julius Ruto said the county was still within the minimum ceilings for development and that there was no cause for alarm.
