Counties to share Sh204bn

Deputy President William Ruto during a meeting the with the Commission of Revenue Allocation (CRA) and Treasury officers to resolve the issue of how much funds should be dispersed to counties at his office Monday. PHOTO/REBECCA NDUKU/DPPS 

By PATRCK MAYOYO pmayoyo@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted  Monday, May 6   2013 at  20:52

 

County governments are set to share Sh204 billion in the 2013/14 financial year.

This was agreed during a meeting attended by officials from the Treasury, the Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA) and the Transition Authority.

The meeting, which was held Monday, was chaired by Deputy President William Ruto, who said the Jubilee government wanted devolution to succeed to improve the lives of Kenyans.

The Treasury, which had initially allocated Sh154 billion, agreed to raise the figure to Sh175 million yesterday. The remainder of Sh29 billion will be allocated to counties as conditional and non-conditional grants.

Those who attended the meeting include Cabinet secretary nominee for the National Treasury, Mr Henry Rotich, CRA chairman Micah Cheserem and other commissioners, Treasury senior economic adviser Kamau Thugge and former Mandera Central MP Abdikadir Mohammed.

The two-hour meeting resolved contentious issues that had seen the Treasury and CRA pulling in different directions as far as the allocations were concerned.

Guidelines to county governments on budget proposals will be issued by CRA, the Treasury and the Transition Authority.

A formula which the Treasury will use to share revenue between the national and county governments is set to be introduced to the National Assembly.

The government on Thursday unveiled a Sh1.6 trillion expenditure projection as it lay ground to fulfil promises made during campaigns.

In estimates tabled on Thursday by the parliamentary Majority Leader, Mr Adan Duale, the national government has budgeted for Sh1 trillion, with 43 per cent going to development expenditure.

On Tuesday, the government tabled the Division of Revenue Bill 2013 setting Sh198.7 billion as allocation for county governments.

Governors and other stakeholders have in the recent past accused the Treasury of planning to scuttle devolution of power and resources to the county governments.

Speaking at a meeting with the House Budget Committee in January, Mr Cheserem said the Treasury had failed to adopt a formula approved by Parliament for making allocations to the counties. The meeting was also attended by then Finance Minister Njeru Githae and his technocrats.

“If the Treasury behaves the way it is doing now, we’ll not have county governments,” Mr Cheserem told the MPs.