Nakuru to spend Sh14.5bn in 2020/2021 financial year

Acting Speaker Michael Njoroge Sonis conducting session at Nakuru County Assembly on March 4, 2020. PHOTO | FRANCIS MUREITHI | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • The county allocation for development expenditure will be Sh4.35 billion.
  • The conditional grants will account for Sh1.2 billion which translates to 29 per cent of the development expenditure.
  • An emergency allocation of Sh40 million has been set aside for the governor’s office

Nakuru County will spend Sh14.5 billion in the financial year 2020 /2021 if the assembly adopts the estimates as proposed in the County Fiscal Strategy Paper tabled at the Assembly on Wednesday.

According to the Public Financial Management Act 2012, the County Fiscal Strategy Paper should be debated and adopted by the assembly with or without amendments within 14 days after submission to the House.

SH21.3 BILLION

In the current financial year 2019/2020, the 78-member assembly adopted a Sh21.3billion budget. The proposed estimates depicts a reduction of Sh6.8 billion in the next financial year which begins in July this year.

The county allocation for development expenditure (inclusive for the conditional grants) in the financial year 2020/2021 will be Sh4.35 billion.

The conditional grants will account for Sh1.2 billion which translates to 29 per cent of the development expenditure.

An emergency allocation of Sh40 million has been set aside for the governor’s office to cater for unforeseen expenditure pursuant to Section 110 of the Public Financial Management Act.

DISASTERS

Nakuru has experienced a number of disasters including a helicopter crash on October 21, 2017. The chopper plunged into Lake Nakuru, killing five occupants.

On May 9, 2018, a total of 48 people were killed in a dam tragedy at Patel farm in Solai.

The county is also prone to fatal road accidents on the Nakuru – Nairobi and Nakuru –Eldoret highways.

Development projects in the 55 wards are set to increase in the next financial year as Sh1.4 billion, which translates to 50.2 per cent of the equitable share of the development expenditure, has been set aside.

This means each of the 55 wards will be allocated Sh25.4 million.

In the subsequent financial years of 2021/2022 and 2022/2023 the ward kitty will be increased to Sh1.5 billion and Sh1.6 billion respectively.

REVENUE

In the next budget estimates, the total targeted revenue is projected at Sh14.5 billion.

This depicts a decline of 12 per cent from the approved County Fiscal Strategy Paper revenue forecast of Sh16.7 billion.

This comprises equitable share revenue projected at Sh9.7 billion as provided in the 2020 Budget Policy Statement compared to Sh10.4 billion in the last year’s revised County Annual Revenue Allocation. This shows a projected decline of Sh727 million and Sh901 million as conditional grants.

LOANS

According to County Finance and Economic Planning Executive Peter Ketyenya, loans and grants are projected to stand at Sh327 million.

“Our own source of revenue is projected to increase marginally to Sh3.2 billion in 2020 / 2021 up from Sh3.1billion in the current financial year 2019/2020,” said Dr Ketyenya.

In the first half of the current financial year, the county did not meet its revenue collection target of Sh3.1billion. Only Sh1.1 billion was collected, representing 35.7 per cent.

More than half of the local revenue came from Health department which collected Sh590 million followed by Roads, Public Works and Transport (Sh148 million), Lands, Physical Planning and Housing (Sh139 million) and Environment, Water and Natural Resources (Sh111.8 million).

Trade and Tourism, which is supposed to lead in revenue collection, managed Sh94 million followed by Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries (Sh20.6 million), Education, Culture and Youth (Sh842,000), Public Service Management (Sh493,000) and Finance and Economic Planning (Sh338,000).

The rate of execution in the development budget was only 5.4 per cent of the annual Sh10.5 billion which translates to Sh576 million.

BEST SPENDER

“Spending was only executed in the second quarter of the financial year, due to late budget and procurement plan approval,” reads the county Fiscal Strategy Paper report.

The Health department was the best spender at 17 per cent, followed by Youth department (10 per cent), Finance and Economic Planning (9.4 per cent), Education (6.6 per cent) and Environment, Water and Natural Resources completing the top five spenders at 6.5 per cent.

The proposed Nakuru and Naivasha Municipal Boards, which are expected to start laying structures for the proposed Nakuru City this year, have been allocated Sh41.4 million to cater for the employees and other recurrent expenditure.

This allocation will be increased to Sh45 million and Sh49 million in the next two financial years respectively.