Counties to get half of their budget estimates pending case
The Controller of Budget Ms Agnes Odhiambo. She regional governments had failed to clearly distinguish between recurrent and development expenditures. FILE | NATION
What you need to know:
- On Thursday, Members of the County Assemblies moved to court to challenging the CRA directives restricting their power to spend the money allocated to the counties.
- The Controller of Budget had rejected estimates from 44 out the 47 counties for ignoring the directives capping their budget spending.
Counties will get half of the money in their budget estimates following a court agreement between the County Assemblies and Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA).
The two parties reached a consent order Friday morning, directing the Controller of Budget to immediately release half of the county budget estimates pending the hearing and determination of their case.
The Controller of Budget had rejected estimates from 44 out the 47 counties for ignoring directives limiting their budget spending.
On Thursday, however, Members of the County Assemblies (MCAs) moved to court to challenge the directives by the CRA, which restricted their power to spend the money allocated to the counties.
(Read: MCAs fight to stop budget order)
The MCAs argued that the CRA and the Controller of Budget had no authority to direct how counties spend their budgets.
UNNECESSARY SPENDING
MCAs have been on the spot over what critics say is wastage of public funds through salaries, allowances and spending on foreign trips.
In June, the CRA issued a circular putting a limit on the amount of money that assemblies could spend, in a move meant to curb misuse of resources and reduce unnecessary recruitment.
