County expenditure falls short of revenue allocation

By Naftal Makori

Nyamira, Kenya: The low rate of expenditure in Nyamira has been blamed for the slow pace of development.

As a result, there are fears that billions of shillings could be returned to the National Treasury by the end of this financial year.

The County Fiscal Strategy Paper approved by the County Assembly over the weekend indicates that the rate of absorption is a mere 15.93 per cent of the total budget.

The county’s budget is Sh3.4 billion, whereby Sh1.53 billion is meant for recurrent expenditure and Sh1.89 billion for development.

But as at December 31, 2013, the county had spent a paltry Sh302 million on recurrent expenditure and Sh112 million on development.

Some county departments had for the first six months spent less than Sh1 million. 

The county Treasury admits that implementation of the 2013/2014 budget begun at a slow pace due to unbalanced budgets and delays in finalising the County Integrated Development Plan factors that led to delay in disbursement of funds from the national Treasury.

The County Assembly’s Budget and Appropriation Committee Chairman James Sabwengi said they were concerned that the executive had failed to constitute the County Budget and Economic Forum as required by the Public Finance Management Act.

The Debt Management Strategy Paper that should have accompanied the County Fiscal Strategy Paper had not also been developed.

Members of the County Assembly (MCAs) argued that the executive had a tendency of delaying submission of crucial documents.

“They submitted the County Fiscal Strategy Paper on February 28, which is the deadline. This tendency of submitting crucial documents at the eleventh hour must stop if they want us to do a good job,” said Jackson Mogusu, the house minority leader.