Yattani edict on pending bills is conspiracy to derail devolution

Amid debate on the latest refusal by the Treasury to disburse mandatory sharable revenue citing failure by counties to settle pending bills, do not be fooled by the excuse that the country is broke. The truth is that the temporary Treasury chief mandarin Ukur Yattani (pictured) is not acting out of necessity.

Were that possible, we would have seen a reduction in profligate government spending and borrowing. Instead, there is a new impetus to borrow more to pay due debts interest, and fund new fanciful projects coated with insatiable corruption.

All indications are that the Jubilee government is not fazed at all by public debt galloping to an astonishing Sh6 trillion against tired revenue sources that can hardly raise a trillion shillings. This despite comprehensive punitive taxes raid on fatigued Kenyan purses. The economy is in tatters; unemployment has soared as companies downsize or relocate, high cost of basic goods is unbearable and violent crime is spiralling. There is rage in the country.

Despite these, no one is calling for the dissolution of Jubilee government. Instead, its faithful partner in crime – Parliament - gave it a pat on the back, handing it a discretionary vote of confidence by moving the debt ceiling to Sh9 trillion. The wide cap will only increase Jubilee's appetite to squander more on debt-ridden projects with no immediate economic value other than transaction of intensely insatiable looting.

Still, Parliament will not countenance a plea by Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria to probe Kenya’s public debt. One would have expected a pensive regime to pause before broaching a jig like the Nairobi expressway. But no; Kenya is in a drunken debt stupor. Nothing explains this arrogance better than the SGR and dam heists. Against all caution, the former cost Sh365 billion and cannot break even, while the less said about the latter budgeted theft the better. What all this add up to is that the “pay-the-pending bills before you can get your money” caveat imposed on county governments is just an excuse that cannot be explained away citing a broke government. The plot against county governments is more insidious; Yattani in defiance of Parliament has withheld money meant for counties.   

The first attempt at devolution of resources at independence in the 1960s was thwarted by starving regions of money. In an almost slow-motion replica replay 55 years later, county administrations are being stifled and scuttled by deliberate funds disbursement delays and; finally, daring though illegal, withholding their money.  With 37 out of 47 counties rendered bankrupt, the killer punch is about to be delivered.

Under the spell of optimism that swathed the promise of devolution in the 2010 Constitution, none predicted that nine years later, covert designs to strangle devolution at infancy would come this soon. It is interesting that while the Fifth Column of centralists against devolution always existed within the public bureaucracy, there was no forecast that the scions of leaders who aborted Majimbo in 1964 would preside over its death a second time.

It is stranger still that Yattani is the surrogate poster-boy in the conspiracy to kill devolution; as the first Governor of the marginalised Marsabit County, he ought to know better, that devolution is sweet music to majority Kenyans. Which begs the question; why is the Treasury a frontline accomplice on intent to force counties to commit felonies? Whose interest is the Treasury promoting? The Treasury knows that the lexicon of ‘pending bills’ came into county budgets in the 2018/2019 fiscal year, a carryover of hurried ‘eating’ spree to fund elections in 2017. Though the Treasury wants to play judge and jury in an own case, accumulated bills since 2013 result from the Treasury failure to release funds on time.

Granted, there are genuine bills owed, cyclic forensic audits from the Auditor-General, Controller of Budget (CoB) and EACC investigations have indicted most “pending bills” as fraudulent. But when the Treasury indicts counties with lump-sum figures without isolating categories of legible and illegible bills, it is playing malice and dishonesty, and wants counties to pay cheats. You must feel for Nyandarua Governor Francis Kimemia when he vows not to pay “fake bills for ghost projects”.

The Treasury withholding of money to 37 counties for alleged failure to clear “pending bills” is irregular and unconstitutional. First, Treasury took advantage of the vacant CoB office to usurp its function of approving release of money to counties. The appointment of Margaret Nyang’ate Nyakang’o as CoB hasn’t deterred the Treasury to rethink its wayward plan to sabotage devolution.

Second, the Yattani circular withholding disbursement to counties relies on The Public Financial Management and Disposal Act, 2012 that demands pending bills be cleared before other payments but ignores its responsibility under The Public Finance Management Act, 2012 that makes it mandatory for Treasury to disburse funds to counties not later than the 15th of every month. As part of the clandestine plot to ground counties, the Treasury perennially fails to disburse on time but still expects counties to pay accrued bills. 

- Kabatesi is the Vihiga County Government adviser