Governors blame Controller of Budget for delayed approval of funds

Governors have slammed the Office of the Controller of Budget (CoB) over what they term a deliberate attempt to frustrate cash flow in counties and called on senators to defend devolution.

Speaking during the funeral service of Vihiga County Secretary Ezekiel Ayieko in Idaho South Ward, Shinyalu constituency, Kakamega Governor Fernandes Barasa and his Vihiga counterpart Dr Wilbur Ottichilo blamed Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakang’o for the delayed approval of county funds and accused her of alleged attempt to gag governors from voicing their concerns on the matter.

“Three days ago, I asked the COB to change the approval of requests but I was told the request from Kakamega county will not be approved because I have been on the frontline,” claimed Barasa.

The Kakamega governor who is also the Council of Governors Chair of Finance and Economic Planning said delayed disbursement is caused by long approval process at the CoB.“We shouldn’t have our Chief Officers persistently travel to Nairobi for that process yet all the 47 counties have a Controller of Budget coordinator who looks at those requests before they come to Nairobi,” he said.

"There's a systematic attempt to frustrate devolution. Senators, you have an opportunity to save devolution, counties depend on you. We have held mediation talks, and MPs and senators have an opportunity in Parliament to defend devolution. Health, agriculture, and construction of markets are devolved functions and must be transferred to counties," Barasa said.

He urged the CoB to automate the approval process so that the officers upload the requests on a website to ensure timely release of funds saying that the persistent delays in disbursement of funds will result in slow absorption of monies towards the transition to a new financial year.

Vihiga Governor Ottichilo blamed the poor state of county-owned facilities to the delayed disbursement of funds.

“As of now, devolution is under threat because of what we are going through as governors. You have staff you cannot pay salaries; water is disconnected and at times electricity is disconnected in hospitals,” said Ottichilo.

"Senate, please save devolution. If we lose devolution in this country we will go back to where we were and as for now, devolution is under threat. It's tough as governors the Constitution we have today is all about devolution and Kenyans must protect it,” he added.

The Vihiga governor thanked senators for supporting the Sh400 billion allocation to counties even though the proposal was shot down.

Kisii Senator Richard Onyonka said the country is in a mess and Kenyans need a stable economy.

"We respect our President William Ruto but he should stop lying to Kenyans, it's during his tenure that we have borrowed Sh7 trillion. People need food, jobs, and a stable economy. County governments are getting 15 per cent and the national government gets 85 per cent and you want them to develop. We must believe we are going to manage our country if there's fairness and equity in funds distribution," said Onyonka.

Emuhaya MP Omboko Milemba said there's a need to protect counties by demanding timely disbursement of funds by the national government.

Mumias East MP Peter Salaysa accused President Ruto of seeking to control Parliament which is supposed to oversight the Executive.

"You cannot be executive and again you oversight. We need to go back to the drawing board, MPs must be independent in order for them to play their oversight role," said Salasya.

The CoG and COB clashed following revelation by the National Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi that the exchequer had released all monies owed to counties.

However, counties are yet to receive the funds because the process takes two weeks from the Central Bank CRF account to counties’ accounts.

In an update on Monday, November 18, the Ministry of Treasury and Economic Planning said it had fully disbursed the funds to counties except for November.

"A total of Sh158,024,092,590.00 has been disbursed so far for the months of June (arrears), July, August, September, and October. So far, all payments except for the current month of November have been settled," the Ministry said.

According to documents seen by The Standard, the Ministry disbursed Sh30.8 billion in June and Sh32.7 billion in July, Sh30.8 billion and Sh32.7 billion in August and September respectively.