Nairobi, Kenya: Deputy President William Ruto Monday intervened to solve a simmering row between Treasury officials and the Revenue Allocation team over distribution of funds to county governments.
Deputy President William Ruto
Ruto convened a meeting in his office that brought together Treasury, the Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA) and Transition Authority (TA) officials.
And after a two-hour meeting, Treasury agreed to review its allocation upwards to Sh204 billion. The meeting also agreed on the formula of sharing the Sh204 billion among county governments in the 2013/14 fiscal year, with Ruto saying the Jubilee Government was committed to fully supporting devolution.
Treasury, which had initially allocated Sh154 billion, agreed to raise the figure to Sh175 billion Monday. The remainder of Sh29 billion will be allocated to counties as conditional and non-conditional grants.
Those who attended the meeting include nominee to the National Treasury Henry Rotich, CRA chairman Micah Cheserem and his commissioners, Treasury senior economic advisor Kamau Thuge, Investment secretary Esther Koimet, former Mandera Central MP Abdikadir Mohammed and TA members.
“The two-hour meeting resolved contentious issues that had seen Treasury and CRA pulling in different directions as far as the allocations were concerned,” a statement from the Deputy President’s office said. Guidelines to county governments on budget proposals would be issued by CRA, Treasury and TA soon.
The meeting came even as Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya warned that operations of county governments were likely to stall unless Treasury dispatches the monies immediately. Oparanya said some bureaucrats at Treasury and the Office of the President were delaying the funds that ought to have been transferred to Governors.
Transition period
He said TA had on Friday issued a circular stating which services would be fully devolved as from July 1, in spite of the central Government’s delay in allocating the money for the same services during the fiscal year 2013/14, in the first phase of a three-year transition period.
“We have been given a circular showing which services will be handled by the county government as from July but there is no money to implement such services and projects,” the Kakamega Governor told journalists in a Nairobi club Monday.
The country’s immediate former Planning minister also raised an alarm over the duplication of roles and lack of clarity on the fate of parastatals, which operate in more than two counties.
By Geoffrey Mosoku, The Standard