Governors skip meeting to review budgets

Controller of Budget Agnes Adhiambo when she appeared before Senate’s Standing Committee on Finance, Commerce and Economic Affairs at KICC in Nairobi Thursday.  [PHOTO: GEORGE MULALA/STANDARD]

By WILFRED AYAGA and MARGARET KANINI

Kenya: Governors toughened their stance on county government spending by snubbing a meeting with the Controller of Budget Agnes Adhiambo, and instead demanded more cash.

They want their allocation increased from the Sh211 billion proposed by the Treasury in 2014/2015 budget to Sh350 billion

The county CEOs feel they have been unfairly targeted and judged by the public because of what they claim is selective release of information on counties’ spending by Adhiambo.

Senators and MPs also want to limit recurrent expenditure by counties to 30 per cent of their approved budgets, with the rest going to development, putting them on a collision course with the governors who have now vowed to push for increased allocation of funds by The National Treasury to the counties.

The early morning meeting had been called by the Senate Committee on Finance, Commerce and Economic Affairs, but failed to take off after members of the Governors’ Council, led by their chairman Isaac Ruto failed to turn up to review the report, which among other things, reviews expenditures by counties during the first quarter of the financial year.

Members of the Senate Committee on Finance, led by chairman Billow Kerrow, waited in vain for Ruto’s team to appear, after the report had been presented to them by Adhiambo.

Only two members of the council, Kwale Governor Salim Mvurya and his Tana River counterpart Hussain Dodo, turned up for the meeting. They defended their fellow members for failing to turn up, claiming that they had received their invitations late.

NON-PRIORITY AREAS

The failure by the governors to meet the budget controller came amid accusations that the governors and county assemblies had been channeling most of their funds to non-priority areas at the expense of development projects.

There have also been accusations of sleaze among members and staff of county governments.

When contacted, an aide of Ruto’s, Vitalis Kimutai, said a sub-committee headed by Ahmed Abdullahi, the governor for Wajir, would engage the senators on the issue of finances and monies to the county governments.

Kimutai said the governors were willing to meet the Senate committee at a later date to shed light on the report from the Controller of Budget and that Ruto was engaged in his county at the time when he was supposed to have met the Senate Committee on Finance.

Abdullahi said late on Wednesday that they would push for allocation to counties to be increased to cater for development and recurrent expenditure.

But The National Treasury has indicated that it plans to raise its allocation to the 47 counties by a mere Sh1.8 billion in the next fiscal year.

The Public Finance Management (PFM) Act 2012 stipulates that recurrent expenditure shall not exceed county governments’ total revenue and requires counties to allocate a minimum of 30 per cent of their budgets to development expenditure.

Senators, however, want governors to spend 70 per cent of total revenue on development projects.

Yesterday, Adhiambo dismissed claims by some county governors that her office was withholding county funds approved by The National Treasury, arguing that all counties had already received their share.

“All counties are receiving funds as and when they request. No county is being denied finances,” she said.

CREATING LOOPHOLES

She clarified that counties that were asked by her office to revise their budgets had done so but accused others of creating loopholes for corruption by failing to use automated systems to track expenditure in the counties.

She also accused some counties of presenting false accounts to her office.

“If this is deliberate, we will refer them to the relevant authorities,” Adhiambo warned.

The Senate committee said the governors must address issues raised by Adhiambo.

“We are disappointed that the governors were not able to come. These issues raised in the report are matters of public interest. We need their response to these issues,” Kerrow said.

He warned that if the Governors’ Council snubs next Monday’s meeting, his committee might be forced to compel them to attend.

Adhiambo urged the Government to ensure that there are proper systems for monitoring counties’ expenditure.

Citing the numerous trips abroad by members of the county assemblies, Adhiambo said her office has no powers to stop them.

“There is no law empowering me to issue guidelines on travel. It is the county treasuries that should do so,” she stated.

Her report showed that county governments spent over Sh7 billion on staff compensation and other personal emoluments. This represented 55 per cent of their total expenditure.