Governor, ward reps agree on budget

The county assembly and Governor Lee Kinyanjui have finally resolved a month-long budget stalemate.

This came after ward representatives agreed to let go of Sh550 million allocated ward development while the executive let go of Sh532 million.

According to a report by the Budget and Appropriation committee tabled before the assembly yesterday, the Sh1.1 billion allocated 55 wards for development has been reduced by Sh550 million.

The committee also deducted Sh532 million from the Executive’s Sh2 billion development budget.

The assembly’s development budget was scaled down by Sh30 million to raise money for the completion of various projects that had stalled since 2013.

“It would have been difficult for the county to have a balanced budget without foregoing some expenditures to offset the deficit,” said Moses Ndung’u, the committee's chairman.

The stalemate over the proposals contained in the 2018-2019 budget estimates was brought about by the number of projects rolled over from the previous administration.

The schedule for projects and pending bills carried forward to the current budget amounts to Sh4.6 billion.

Tabling the report, Mr Ndung’u attributed the budget deficit to local revenue under-performance. “I wish to remind the house that while the county revenue target was Sh2.5 billion, the actual collection amounted to Sh1.6 billion,” he said, adding that the county assembly needed to urgently deliberate on ways to improve revenue collection.

The revised county budget for 2018-2019 Financial Year now stands at Sh18.3 billion after factoring in the Sh3.8 billion exchequer balance from the previous financial year.

Salaries are expected to take the lion's share of the budget at Sh6.1 billion, followed by health at Sh5.9 billion.