Gideon concerned over increased roll-overs, wage bill in county : The Standard

Senator Gideon Moi has expressed concern over increased rollover of billions of shillings and the county’s ballooning wage bill. Gideon spoke when he met governor Stanley Kiptis, his deputy Jacob Chepkwony and all county executive committee members on Wednesday to discuss the development record. “The quarterly County Budget Implementation Review reports from the Office of the Controller of Budget have raised pertinent concerns on the low absorption of development funds and skyrocketing wage bill. This must be tamed,” Gideon said. In the just ended 2018/2019 financial year, Baringo recorded a rollover of Sh2.8 billion in development funds while in the 2017/2018 fiscal year, the county had a rollover of Sh1.75 billion.

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Gideon urged the county government to put measures in place to ensure development funds are used prudently. “We will move from handshake to handcuffs. People must face the consequences of their deeds. Residents expect us leaders to utilise the funds maximally but when we have such kinds of rollovers, it calls for rethinking of our priorities,” he said. The senator also took issue with the rising wage bill, which, at 54 per cent of total revenue, is way above the recommended ceiling of 35 per cent. In a letter dated June 5, the county CoB Edwin Cherop warned that the wage bill is projected to rise to Sh3.36 billion, which is 59 per cent of the Sh4.9 billion budget drawn up for the 2019/2020 financial year. Economic indiscipline

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Mr Cherop asked the county to adhere to the provisions of the law. Gideon also warned the Executive against ‘economic indiscipline’. “The law will take its course if things are not done in the right way,” he said. The concerns about the bloated wage bill come at a time when the county has been on the spot over failure to spend development funds totalling Sh2.8 billion in the just-ended financial year. A report last week by the County Assembly Budget and Appropriation Committee revealed that the funds will be rolled over to the 2019/2020 fiscal year. Analysis of county reports shows that there has been a slow-down in the rolling out of development projects hence the billions of shillings in unspent funds.

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The trend of rolling over development funds has gathered pace over the years, rising from 36.2 per cent in 2016/2017, to 59.8 per cent and 77.1 per cent in the 2017/2018 and 2018/2019 financial years respectively. In an earlier response, Mr Kiptis had disputed claims that his administration returned Sh2.4 billion in the 2018/2019 budget to Treasury after failing to utilise the funds for development projects. The governor said the only money returned to Treasury was Sh1.3 billion, which was budgeted for but was withheld after contractors failed to complete projects on time.

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Gideon MoiCounty BudgetExecutiveWage bill