More money for counties coming soon

Governors could have their desire for more funding for the devolved governments they run fulfilled as early as next year.

The allocation to counties could cross the Sh300-billion mark next year if plans by the Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly succeed.

PAC chairman Ababu Namwamba said last week the team is working overtime to finish scrutinising the latest report of the Auditor-General on the national government’s accounts.

Mr Namwamba said in October the team will table its reports on the government’s audited accounts for the 2010/2011, 2011/2012 and 2012/2013 financial years.

“This year, we’ll set a record in this country where Parliament will have approved accounts for five years,” said Mr Namwamba.

PAC inherited a backlog of audit reports going back five years, where the last approved accounts were for the financial year 2007/2008.

It then produced the report on the2008/2009 and 2009/2010 financial years, and the Sh529.3 billion revenue for the last year was used as the base for the division of revenue between the national and the county governments this year.

According to the Auditor-General’s report for 2012/2013, which is the latest, the national government recorded that it received Sh813 billion as revenue.

Forty three per cent of that is Sh349.59 billion and the 15 per cent minimum is Sh121.95 billion, which is far less than the Sh226.6 billion the counties will be getting this year.

It could also go higher if the Auditor-General gives Parliament the report on the 2013/2014 financial year by December and the PAC finishes scrutinising it by March next year.

If the plan succeeds, it could cool the referendum fever, which has been fired by the demands of the Council of Governors to go about their quest for a plebiscite separate from that by the Coalition for Reforms and Democracy.

Cord has been collecting signatures but haven’t yet framed their questions.

STUMBLING BLOCK

The governors, who are set to start collecting signatures, have already established the push to have 45 per cent of revenue devolved to counties entrenched in the Constitution.

Because the allocations are based on the latest audited accounts, Cord has blamed Parliament, and in effect the PAC, for delaying the scrutiny of the audit reports and therefore becoming the first stumbling block to the quest for more funding.

Although the National Assembly is on recess, the committee has been holding regular meetings with Principal Secretaries, who are invited to respond to queries raised by the auditors.

“This committee does not go on recess. It works even Mondays and Fridays, which are our constituency days,” he told Devolution Principal Secretary Peter Mangiti.

“In this effort,” Mr Namwamba told Mr Mangiti, “We have been thoroughly frustrated by accounting officers. You ask for postponements, you come here unprepared…” 

Mr Mangiti had taken responsibility for the ministry having delivered their responses on audit queries on the Constituency Development Funds on Monday, hours before the meeting with PAC.

Mr Namwamba said that when the backlog of unaudited accounts is cleared, the Office of the Auditor-General and the ministries and other government agencies will have to improve their performance.

The Auditor-General will be expected to fulfill the constitutional requirement and submit their reports on all government accounts within six months of the end of the financial year.

Parliament will then be required to scrutinise and prepare a report on what the Auditor-General has said within three months, which will also require the government departments to have their responses to queries ready as soon as possible.

“After October, when this committee will have performed a miracle, we’ll revert to that constitutional cycle,” said Mr Namwamba.

This will also put the Office of the Auditor-General on its toes because it will be under pressure to have the report on government accounts delivered to Parliament by December.