Why NEP Counties may be denied funds as Duale backs Senate to rein in Governors.

National Assembly Majority Leader Hon Adan Duale

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Article

228(6) of the Constitution  mandates the Controller of Budget to submit to each house

of Parliament a report on the implementation of budgets of both the National and County

Governments. Reporting on budget implementation creates awareness among stakeholders

and  enables  them  to  identify  and  review  existing  policy.

The Office of the Controller of Budget (OCOB) established County offices in each of the 47

Counties in line with the principle of devolution to enable County Governments discharge

their  services  effectively.  This  report  is  a  careful  analysis  of  budget  implementation  by

the Counties for the period July to September 2013. In the report, we have compared the

implementation of the budgets against the County Appropriation laws that are in force,

highlighted the revenues and expenditures of the Counties and assessed their performance.

It is expected that this report will enable the County Governments build on the milestones

achieved by initiating corrective mechanisms on issues highlighted and forge ahead to realize

the devolution aspirations notwithstanding the anticipated challenges and impediments' Reads

   the Controller's report.

Whenever we ask questions like; when will the government tarmac the road from Garissa to Mandera, the angers has always been, ‘’when funds are available.’’ Now, when will funds be available even  when funds meant for other less demanding developments  are  channeled to personal emoluments and massaging governors’ ego of living large?

Powerful interests that control NEP Counties in every aspect are in vicious battle for the county coffers. The counties of Mandera, Wajir and Garissa under the leadership of Ali Roba (popularly known as Early Robber), Ahmed Jiir (A poor man who could not believe he controls 6B that he can’t even manage it) and Nathif Jamac (A banker turned thief)   have been rocked by multi-million shilling scandals and inability to manage public funds leading to questions on who is in-charge: The Governors or the Junta that is the Council of Elders?

Documents seen by this blogger show a complete disregard for the public procurement rules. Tenders are issued to specific persons even before they are advertised and payments are processed before good delivered!

Multiple sources within the county governments of NEP who spoke to this abrasive blog on condition of anonymity claimed various commercial and political interest supported by powerful individual members of the Council of Elders are behind the looting of the county coffers and misuse of public funds. The Governors can’t do anything as they are held hostage-Politically. ‘’All Public Service and Tender Board Committees are dominated by cronies of the Governors and Council of Elders. They don’t even have the necessary qualifications” Says our contact. Wajir County is the worst, there are reports emerging that all employment recruitments were done unprocedurally. As we write this, we can authoritatively inform you that no service what so ever is being delivered by the Wajir County Government to the people of Wajir.

We take issue with circumstances under which huge projects are tendered  to individuals who can’t even finance it!  However, we have also established that there are senior County Government Officials who lobby for others and make a kill in the process. But at times, deals go sour like it happened recently in Mandera County; a Chief Officer swallowed a businessman’s money but could not deliver the contract. He had to run a way to Nairobi.

Mandera’s Airport construction plan, Wajir’s Boreholes project and Garissa’s street lightening are all our ‘Anglo-Leasing’ in the making. Our Governors, in a bid to play to the gallery are spending more time on prime-time TV, hundreds of kilometers away, than in their offices.

By now, you must be aware that governors have turned the heat on Mrs Agness Odhiambo, Controller of Budgets accusing her of mischief. But are the Governors defending the indefensible?  Anybody worth his salt knows that our governors have gone bananas and are ‘raping’ the county coffers.

The Counties Budget Implementation Report revealed that the bulk of the funds allocated to the counties went to personal emoluments and other irrelevant extravagancies. The Senate Majority Leader, Prof Kithure Kindiki is says that he will introduce an  ‘’ amendment bill to cap the development vote at 70% of the funds allocated to counties and leave 30% for recurrent expenditure.’’

National Assembly Majority Leader, Hon Duale promised to support such an amendment. ‘’ How can the Central bank hold 38B of County funds that they failed to utilize while we are crying for development?’’ Wondered Duale.

Below is how your money meant for development was looted by the Governors.

The three counties had  no  time  to  develop  the  County  Integrated  Development  Plans  and  County

Financial  Strategy  Paper  to  guide  the  budgeting  process.  The  Counties  had  inadequate

information  on  items  to  include  in  their  budgets,  for  instance  it  was  not  clear  whether

Counties would include salaries for staff from the National Government for the devolved

functions. The Counties were also uncertain on the amount of funds available to them as

equitable share due to the protracted disagreement between the National Assembly and the

Senate on the Division of Revenue Bill

As an Accountant, I analyzed  the County Budgets to ensure they conform to

the principles of public finance as enshrined in Article 201 of the Constitution and financial

responsibility principles in the PFM Act, 2012. From the analyses, I established

that some of the County Budgets had huge deficits and unrealistic revenue targets without

explanations on how the deficits were to be financed. These deficits could adversely affect

budget implementation in that the County would spend the available resources and lack the

necessary resources to fund activities in the later part of the year if the anticipated revenues

are not realized. 

In a nut shell, the internal control mechanisms of the 3 county governments is wanting.

Mandera Governor-Ali Roba

Garissa Governor, Nathif Jama

In a span 3 months, July- September 2013

Garissa, Mandera and Wajir spent close  a total of 1 billion Kenya shilling on personal entertainment, travelling and other extravagancies. No Amount was spent on development.

Sitting  allowances  were  paid  to  members  of  the  County  Assemblies  for  attending  County

Assembly sessions or for attending Departmental Committee meetings. These expenditures

were  classified under operations and maintenance expenses although a number of counties

treated the expenditures as personnel emoluments. When did they sit? were they not on strike for the better part of 2013?

 Counties that had the highest ratio of development expenditure

to total expenditure were Nyeri (30.3%), Tana River (26.0%) and Tharaka Nithi (25.5%). 

Exp items

Garissa as an example.

Travel -44,600,500

Confe-12,450,712

Training-3,000,356

Luxurious cars-48,059,153

Others-39,948,966

MCA Sitting- 12,000,000

Development - 0

A..K. A