Should counties flop, devolution won’t fail

By KETHI D KILONZO

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Is devolution a slug melting away as it moves along? The financial management of County Governments has taken centre stage for the past weeks. Four arms of County Government – Governors, County Assembly, Senate and the Judiciary – have locked horns. There are growing fears that devolution, as a result, is under threat.

Public money in the hands of counties must be used openly, prudently and responsibly. The public have a right to participate in the budget making process. They must have a say in recurrent expenditure and what development projects should be undertaken every financial year. They also have a right to be informed on how these funds have been utilised.

Accountability for public money by County Governments does not end there. The public can and must query whether public monies have been used for the purposes they were set aside for. And their questions must be answered and satisfactorily. The Constitution has placed this mandate – to ask difficult questions and press for the right answers – on the County Assembly and Senate. This power is exercised on behalf of the people. It is not the MCAs and the Senators who impeached the Governor of Embu. It is the people of his county.

The reports of the Controller of Budget and the Auditor General on financial management of counties must be put in the proper perspective. The Controller of Budget has produced quarterly budget implementation reports for both National and County Governments.

These are reports for the period between July and September 2013. There are three more to come before the end of the financial year. The National Assembly and Senate should put the report on National Government under similar scrutiny. One of the responsibilities of the Auditor General under the Constitution is to audit financial accounts of National Government and County Governments after the end of the financial year. He is then required to lay his reports before Parliament for debate and appropriate action to be taken.

The current financial year is in its third quarter.  What is the basis for auditing County Government accounts before the financial year is complete? Who raised the audit queries? And why? Has the Auditor General carried out a similar audit of funds disbursed to national government so far?

If there is financial mismanagement in the counties it must be nipped in the bud. However, audit of public funds must be carried out with proper motives, within the law and uniformly across National and County governments.

The Controller of Budget correctly attributes some of the failings in County Governments in managing public finances to teething problems. For instance, she states that in the first quarter counties were setting up structures, operationalising IFMIS, recruiting and appointing accounting officers and AIE holders.

Furthermore there was delay in the release of funds from National Government to the counties.  Her report is optimistic; not pessimistic. All hope is not lost for county governments; far from it.

Moreover, devolution is not about resources alone. The Constitution lays out nine objectives that should be achieved through devolution. Sharing of resources between national and county governments is objective number seven out of nine in the Constitution. The other objectives are just as important.

They include democracy and accountability, fostering of national unity and recognising diversity, self-governance, participation in power and decision-making, local management and protection of minorities and marginalised communities. As a country we must be careful not to equate the successes and failures of financial management in counties with the successes and failures of devolution. The Constitution itself recognises that there are county governments that will fail. And it provides a safety net for these counties. If and when they do fall, it is not devolution that would have failed.

The writer is an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya