Sh250m saved as MCAs effect budget cuts
A view of the Nakuru County Assembly chamber. Agriculture in Nakuru county is set for a major turn-around following the launch of a Sh4.5 billion development plan. PHOTO | SULEIMAN MBATIAH | FILE
What you need to know:
- Among the miscellaneous expenditures slashed are domestic travel and daily subsistence which MCAs concurred was abused in the last financial year
- In the current spending, Sh26 million deducted across the departments will be channelled to other developmental projects
Members of the Nakuru County Assembly have cut the 2014/15 recurrent expenditure by more than Sh250 million and raised allocations for health, roads, education and environment departments.
The reduction in allocations to the non-core activities under all departments will result in the saving of Sh257 million that the Committee on Budget and Appropriation recommended to be shared among departments.
Among the miscellaneous expenditures slashed are domestic travel and daily subsistence which MCAs concurred was abused in the last financial year.
DIALYSIS MACHINES
In the current spending, Sh26 million deducted across the departments will be channelled to other developmental projects.
Similarly, Sh5 million will be saved from the purchase of furniture and fittings and Sh20.4 million from allocation for research and feasibility studies mainly in the department of transport.
Readjusting the allocations for the Sh9.8 billion budget for this year, has seen Sh10 million saved for the purchase of dialysis machines and an equal amount for the construction of a mortuary at Olenguruone.
Further, Sh55 million will be used for education bursaries.
Mitigating the effects of climate change will take Sh15 million while Sh28.5 million will also go into promoting sports activities in the wards.
Meanwhile, the MCAs accuse Governor Kinuthia Mbugua of interfering with proper implementation of approved projects in the last year’s financial budget.
PLENARY SESSION
They claim that Mr Mbugua has been giving roadside orders for either completion or initiation of projects that were not factored in the 2013/14 budget.
“I don’t know what we are doing here if we pass the budget which cannot be effected as it is,” said Mr Njuguna Gachamu, the Nyota Ward MCA.
But Speaker Susan Kihika said MCAs were to blame for failed execution of the 85 percent of the projects set to have started before the end of the current financial year.
“You are the ones who have failed to play your oversight role. And that is why only 15 percent of the projects have been implemented,” Ms Kihika told the MCAs during a plenary session last week.
