Governors to Shut Down County Operations Next Week if Treasury Fails to Disburse Ksh102.6bn – LitKenya

County governments may be forced to stop operations by June 24, 2021 if the National Treasury fails to disburse Ksh102.6 billion allocated to them.

Council of Governors (CoG) Chairman Martin Wambora on Monday, faulted the Treasury for what he termed as a violation of the law.

Wambora, who is also the Embu  Governor, said the Treasury had yet to disburse the money just two weeks to the end of the financial year.

He said this was also despite a stipulation by the County Governments Cash Disbursement Schedule for the Financial Year 2020/21 generated by the Treasury and approved by Senate in line with the Public Finance Management (PFM) Act stating that funds should be disbursed on the 15th day of every month.

Governor Wambora broke down the Ksh102.6 billion as Ksh.3.5 billion owed to Nairobi City County government as arrears for the financial year 2019/2020; Ksh2.6 billion owed to city county for January and another Ksh1.4 billion for February.

Ksh14.4 billion is also owed to 25 county governments for March, Ksh.28.5 billion for April, Ksh25.3 billion for May, and Ksh26.9 billion for June.

The CoG chairman said the counties were unable to meet their statutory obligations and fiscal responsibilities such as payment of employees’ salaries, the remittance of employees’ statutory deductions, payment of suppliers’ eligible pending bills, implementation of development projects, and derailed response in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The continued delay in disbursement is eroding gains made in devolved governance and affecting the economic growth in the counties. Treasury has not only failed to comply with the Constitution but even with its own document- the Cash Disbursement Schedule, 2020,” Governor Wambora added.

“This has seen counties stigmatised for failing to offer critical services, especially now in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic, for what is beyond them. While Kenyans continue to demand services from the county governments, operations at the national government continue uninterrupted owing to timely financing from the National Treasury, while those operations in the counties are slowly grinding to a halt. This should not be tolerated by those who support the success of devolution in Kenya.”

He said the counties would be unable to clear their pending bills amounting to Ksh11.5 billion as directed by Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani in his Budget speech if the funds are not disbursed.

“We appeal to the Senate, the custodian of devolution, to support counties in this call for timely disbursement as the law provides for efficient service delivery. Operations across counties are currently paralyzed,” he stated.

“Today is the 14th June 2021, 16 days remaining to the closure of this financial year. In this regard, the National Treasury should release these funds by 18th June 2021.”

The CoG chairman added: “This will offer counties the remaining eight working days to satisfy the stringent requirements by the Controller of Budget in accessing and spending the funds. Unfortunately, if the National Treasury fails to release the required funds, counties will not be able to offer basic service thereby forcing the suspension of services or a total shut down by 24the June 2021.”

Do you have any fascinating, funny, intriguing, troubling or inspiring story that you would wish to share? Please email us at:
[email protected] and we will publish it on Litkenya.com