Senators criticise governors spending

Senators Wednesday clashed with governors for not allocating cash for development but the county chiefs claimed that the money was not released by the controller of budget.

At a press briefing Wednesday, senators accused governors of using all the money allocated to them by the central government on salaries and travelling instead of focusing on long-term projects.

The lawmakers affiliated to the Jubilee Coalition said they would amend the law to force counties to direct more than 60 per cent of their budgets to development. 

Senate Majority Leader Kithure Kindiki said they would table the amendment when the House resumes next month.

“The governors have spent the money on salaries, foreign travelling and holding conferences. This has to stop and we will bring a law to reduce these expenses and help in developing the counties,” said Prof Kindiki.

The lawmakers were reacting to the latest quarterly report by the controller of budget Agnes Odhiambo that showed that most counties had only used millions of shillings given them to cover recurrent costs.

The chairman of the council of governors Isaac Rutto, said the controller of budget had frozen development funds to counties after lawmakers failed to pass the Public Finance Management Bill and procurement rules.

“The money we received at the end of September was for recurrent budget. Where were we to get the money for development yet the controller of budget has not released it?” he asked.

Speaking at a press briefing at Afya House, Mr Rutto said it would take counties up to end of February to fulfil what he called tedious requirements for release of development funds, saying governors should be judged on whether they had performed starting from June. He also attributed the delay in passing budgets to a strike by county representatives agitating for higher pay.

The council of governors’ chairman also hit out at senators, accusing them of singing the government’s tune instead of propagating issues affecting counties.