Siaya County Assembly approves Ksh 7.07B budget

Members of Siaya County Assembly on Friday, March 3 passed the 2016/17 Financial Year county budget estimates of Ksh 7.07 billion that has proposed a reduction on the executive expenditure.

The budget estimates have seen a Ksh 253.3 million reduction from the 2015/16 Financial Year budget that was capped at Ksh 7.3 billion.

The county treasury proposed to fund the Ksh 682.7 million supplementary budget by making deductions from three major areas including Ksh 122.2 million from executive development, Ksh 440.4 million from executive recurrent expenditure and Ksh 120 million from Ward-based projects.

However, in the 2016/2017 budget estimates read in the House by the Chair of the Budget and Appropriation Committee, Jack Odinga, the committee recommended that two projects – upgrading of Siaya Stadium and Communication Services, be deferred to the 2017/18 budget.

Due to the drought effect in the last season, the committee further recommended that Ksh 115 million be directed to fighting the ongoing famine and that this be financed from the executive expenditure and not from the Ward projects.