CoG call on Treasury to disburse funds to counties by Monday
The Council of Governors (CoG) has called for disbursement of funds from the National Treasury to the counties by Monday next week.
The Council chairperson Ann Waiguru insisted that the delay has paralysed county operations and service delivery including payment of salaries to county officials, purchase of medical supplies, stalling of development projects and response interventions in drought and disaster management.
“The outstanding amount for Conditional Allocations to County Governments for FY 2021/22 is 27.68 Billion while in the current FY 2022/23, conditional allocations amounting to 37 Billion remain outstanding due to delay in the passage of the County Governments Additional Allocations Bill, 2022,” observed Waiguru.
The Council claims that the delays and the unpredictable disbursements of funds has had negative impact on service delivery and counties run the risk of accruing pending bills.
“The Council calls upon the National Treasury to release all the outstanding disbursements to Counties on or before Monday, 10/10/22. Next year, the County Government will mark 10 years since inception, we ask the President to authorise the National Treasury to disburse resources to enhance service delivery,” stated Waiguru.
Waiguru urged the National Assembly to facilitate the process of prioritising on the amendments of transfer of functions likened to “bing-bang” model.
“We call on the immediate gazettement of nominees to ensure that the concerns and interests of County Governments are addressed. The council is planning for the first Bi-ennial Devolution Conference to be held in August 2023 under the theme, “Ten Years of Devolution: The Present and the Future” which will mark the end of the Annual series of Conferences and the beginning of the bi-ennial Devolution Conferences to enable full implementation of resolutions by stakeholders in the devolution space,” Waiguru alluded.
The Chairperson of Health Committee, governor Muthomi Njuki called on speedy release of funds from the National government so as to be able to put in place measures to control the spread of the deadly disease Ebola into the country.
“We are concerned and we are aware of the situation,” said Njuki.
During the meeting, key emerging issues affecting County Governments were discussed among them is disbursement of equitable share of revenue, County Governments additional allocations, unbundling, costing and transfer of functions and attendant resources.
