CoG, Treasury clash over Sh40billion funds
The Council of Governors is demanding payment of billions of shillings that are due by the national government for the completion of blocked projects for the fiscal year 2021/22 only a month before the fiscal year ends.
The delay in disbursing Sh39.9 billion in additional allocations owed to devolved units, according to the Council, has slowed the implementation of projects for which the monies were budgeted.
Counties are scrambling to complete projects that have been postponed owing to budget issues, just months before a handful of governor’s face re-election on August 9.
“In the current financial year, county governments were allocated Sh39.9 billion as additional funds. We note with concern that no county government has received any additional allocations, with one month left to the end of the financial year under which these funds were budgeted for,” COG said in a statement.
According to the governors, 30 counties have yet to get their fair share of funding from the national government for April, while all 47 counties have failed to receive it for the previous month, causing service delivery to be hampered.
The Treasury has delivered 77 per cent of the entire allocation for the fiscal year 2021/22 to counties with an outstanding balance of Sh83.5 billion, resulting in an accumulation of pending invoices as counties are unable to pay suppliers.
The governors claim that the lag has hampered not only the execution of major projects that the money was supposed to pay during the fiscal year but that the budget shortage would also have an impact on the transition to new administrations following the General Election.
“The perennial delays have negatively affected service delivery in the counties and have further led to continuous pending bills. This is already threatening the desired smooth transition after (election),” COG said in a statement.
Some counties have gone months without paying their workers due to the delayed payout, causing industrial discontent.
Employees in Homa Bay County went on strike last month, claiming the administration’s inability to pay their salaries for March and May.
The counties are also requesting that billions of shillings in unpaid debts be settled, which they acquired from the dissolved local government when devolution began in 2013.
The national government owes the defunct local administrations Sh5.1 billion, according to a report by the Intergovernmental Technical Relations Committee.
