Counties risk losing billions in budget row
What you need to know:
- Members of the mediation committee who talked to the Nation said there was no progress and they would report to their respective Houses that they had failed to agree.
- The two Houses have to unanimously agree on the Bill before it can be forwarded to the President, who will then sign it into law.
- He said the team would seek the intervention of the Senate’s Finance committee and the MPs’ Budget committee to ensure that the country is not plunged into a crisis.
Talks between MPs and senators on how to share money between the national and county governments in the next financial year have collapsed after the two Houses of Parliament failed to strike a deal on Tuesday.
Parliament has today to agree on the formula but by last evening, there was no sign of any progress over the Division of Revenue Bill, 2015.
A mediation team set up by the National Assembly and Senate to find a common ground on the Bill hit a dead end after senators and MPs hardened their positions after they met officials of the National Treasury and the Parliamentary Budget Office.
Members of the mediation committee who talked to the Nation said there was no progress and they would report to their respective Houses that they had failed to agree.
Kakamega Senator Boni Khalwale said: “It is unfortunate that even after meeting with the Parliamentary Budget Office and the Treasury, we have not been able to find a way forward. MPs have remained adamant and have stuck to their figure.”
Unless a deal is struck by today, devolution will be in peril because counties are at risk of being denied funding in the next financial year if the Bill collapses. The next fiscal year begins on July 1.
The National Assembly had proposed Sh283.7 billion to be given the counties but the Senate raised the amount to Sh291.4 billion, causing the deadlock.
UNANIMOUSLY AGREE
The two Houses have to unanimously agree on the Bill before it can be forwarded to the President, who will then sign it into law.
“We will report to the House that the talks have collapsed and then the consequences of that can take place. We have done our best but our colleagues appeared not to have come for mediation,” said Dr Khalwale.
The mediation team chairman, the Rev Mutava Musyimi, also the Mbeere South MP, remained hopeful that a solution would be found today.
He said the team would seek the intervention of the Senate’s Finance committee and the MPs’ Budget committee to ensure that the country is not plunged into a crisis.
“We have agreed to meet again tomorrow and the Senate Finance committee will also meet over the issue,” he said yesterday.
Another member of the mediation team said a solution to the impasse was unlikely to be reached as it was no longer about how much should be devolved to counties, but about supremacy battles between the two houses.
The member, who requested not to be named, said the committee had agreed not to give in to the Senate proposal to give counties an additional Sh7 billion.
