Taita Taveta MCAs approve the sacking of workers to reduce wage bill

Taita Taveta Governor Andrew Mwadime. [Robert Menza, Standard]

The county government of Taita Taveta is expected to lay off staff after the assembly approved proposals in the supplementary budget.

The Budget Committee proposed staff rationalisation to reduce the wage bill that currently stands at 53 per cent.

Governor Andrew Mwadime admitted that the bloated workforce had compromised service delivery. He noted that the county has more than 3,000 workers.

On Tuesday, MCAs passed the more than Sh7.2 billion third supplementary budget for the year ending June 30, an increase by Sh85 million, despite concerns over low own-source revenue collections in recent years.

According to the estimates, Sh5 billion has been allocated for recurrent expenditure and Sh2.2 billion for development expenditure. The Department of Water got a lion's share of Sh1 billion.

Governor Mwadime has prioritised health, agriculture to improve food security, provision of water and settlement of pending bills.

According to the budget estimates, Agriculture department has been allocated Sh462 million, Finance (Sh212 million), Lands (Sh93 million), Public Works more than Sh85 million and Health more than Sh74 million.

The 2022/2023 budget estimate increased from more than Sh7.1 billion to Sh7.2 billion. The extra Sh85 million has been received from donors.

The county donor resource envelope has increased from Sh1.3 billion to more than Sh1.4 billion.

According to the budget estimates, the Executive basic salaries increased by Sh378 million, the education fund by Sh5.8 million and development expenditure by Sh86 million.

The estimates proposed an increase in the approved recurrent budget estimates by more than Sh112 million and a decrease in the approved development budget by about Sh27 million. The more than Sh85 million difference is catered for by the increase in donor funding.

"The county Treasury has proposed a reduction of development pending bills by Sh50 million. The executive proposed a reduction in county executive car and mortgage loan by Sh40 million," stated the Budget Committee Vice Chairperson Azhar Din who presented the estimates.

To fund the additional recurrent expenditure, deductions amounting to more than Sh112 million were done in the development expenditure.