Uhuru announces breakthrough in government-governors standoff

Uhuru announces breakthrough in government-governors standoff

President Uhuru Kenyatta has announced eight key areas of consensus between the national and county governments reached during the governance summit held at the Sagana State Lodge in Nyeri County.

Addressing the press at the end of the two-day summit on national and county government coordination on Thursday, the president said the two units had agreed on nine key areas including the adoption of a policy of austerity measures aimed at eliminating wastage of resources.

The move, the president said, is aimed at helping the governments to release more resources from the current expenditure and divert the same to development.

President Kenyatta also highlighted that the two levels of government had agreed to work on increasing revenue collection in order to grow the overall resource basket

“We have also agreed to achieve a 50 per cent reduction in travel expenses and allowances across all government organs including the judiciary and national and county legislatures,” he said.

He noted that 2016/17 budget estimates will be lower than those of 2015/16 as the government moves to reduce expenditure.

The government has also moved to address the dissatisfaction expressed by county governments over county allocations that had led to the birth of the Pesa Mashinani referendum push.

Without divulging the details, the President said the government had reached an agreement with governors to increase the overall funding to counties.

As a measure of reducing the burgeoning wage bill, President Kenyatta said they had undertaken to carry out an analysis of the functions at both levels of government to eliminate duplication and wastage

“We intend to channel all funds released as a result of these initiatives to national interest development projects to be undertaken by both national and county governments.”

“We have also agreed to streamline the processes of funds flow in relation to conditional and development partner funds,” he said.

In order to fast tract the implementation of the resolutions reached in the course of the summit, the national government and county governments have established an ad hoc committee composed of Council of Governors chair Peter Munya, National Treasury CS Henry Rotich and Devolution CS Mwangi Kiunjuri.

Other members of the committee are Controller of Budget Agnes Odhiambo, the chair of the Commission of Revenue Allocation Micah Cheserem, Chair of intergovernmental relations technical committee Karega Mutahi and Council of Governors Finance Committee Chair Wycliffe Oparanya.

The committee has been mandated with the task of finalising the proposal within two weeks to meet budgetary deadlines.

The resolutions also give the National Treasury and the Controller of Budget the powers to ensure compliance and enforcement of the new austerity measures, public finance legislation and regulation.

The summit was attended by Deputy President William Ruto, several county governors, cabinet secretaries, principal secretaries and other government officials.

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