Govt diverting county funds to unnecessary projects Munya

Governors have now associated the delayed disbursement of funds to the counties with the diversion of the same to other  projects that had not been budgeted for by the national government.

According to Council of Governors chairman Peter Munya, the prolonged delayed in disbursement of funds to the counties raises a lot of questions.

Munya, who is also Meru County Governor, says that the national government has been silent on the delay despite the governors raising the issue with top offices including that of the president and the Senate.

He accused the national government of frustrating devolution by denying counties funds and allegedly trying to take back devolved functions such as health.

The latest remarks by Munya come barely two weeks after governors said that only one county had received its financial allocation from the National Treasury as of September 20th, 2015.

In a letter to the Senate, governors accused the national government of deliberately delaying the funds and therefore derailing development programmes.

Munya further argued that the disbursements, which should be done on a monthly basis, had been delayed for several months with several counties having not received any cash for over three months.

According to the letter, out of the 47 applications for the funds by the counties in the month of July, 16 counties had not received their allocations by September 20th.

For the month of August, out of the 47 applications only 12 counties received their allocations while 35 others had not received any response from the National Treasury.

Governors now say that county governments continue to face challenges in service delivery due to these delays.

They argue that some counties have been unable to pay their bills including water and electricity and therefore forcing service providers to discontinue their services.

In the September letter, Munya wrote: “The persistent delays and unpredictable disbursement of funds has negatively impacted service delivery with some counties almost grinding to a halt.”

“In most counties, development has stalled due to delayed procurement of materials or payment of suppliers. Additionally, counties have been unable to pay staff salaries on time leading to labour unrest.”

Mid August, governors accused the national government of holding Ksh 280 billion meant to facilitate operations in the 47 counties.

Governors claimed that the government’s intent in holding the funds was a tactical ploy to frustrate devolution saying there has been sound expenditure in the counties that has led to the construction of hospitals and schools.

They also accused the National Assembly for fighting devolution by introducing new Bills which intended to take back powers from the county governments to the national government.