Oparanya dismisses poor funds use report, blames Treasury

The Council of Governors (CoG) has dismissed a report by the Controller of Budget that revealed that most counties allocated little or nothing to development in the first quarter of the 2018/19 financial year.

New chairman Wycliffe Oparanya described the report as erroneous, noting it is impossible for any county to have no allocation for development.

“Such a scenario is not inconceivable and is impossible to countenance. A situation of zero allocation to development is not anticipated because the Public Finance Management Act stipulates that 30 percent of all revenues allocated to a county be set aside for development,” Mr Oparanya told a meeting at the CoG headquarters in Nairobi on Monday.

The Kakamega Governor spoke as the CoG secretariat briefed the private sector on the status of preparations for the sixth annual devolution conference to be held in Kirinyaga County in March.

“Even if the counties were to allocate zero funds to development, it is unlikely that such a budget would be approved by the assemblies. This is in the law,” he added.

DELAYS

Mr Oparanya however said that the low allocation to development projects had to do with delays in the release of cash by Treasury.

He pointed out that no county received money in the quarter in question due to problems in revenue collection owing to the challenges of the 2017 general election.

“There was no cash disbursement to counties in the first quarter of this financial year so the zero allocation to development in this period is obvious. The first disbursement was in October 2018, well after the end of the first quarter which ends in September,” Mr Oparanya said.

He added: “A few counties have low allocations to development because of a rollover from the last financial year, with the disbursement on July 2, 2018.”

Senate Majority whip Irungu Kangata supported the council, citing minimal revenue collections due to fiscal and macroeconomic challenges.

“The national government has no reserves. They tax, collect and then disburse. What we are seeing is a consequence of under-collection for macroeconomic reasons,” he said.

KAKAMEGA

According to the report, only Sh3.5 billion of the Sh50.9 billion allocated to counties was used for development across all 47 of them.

The balance of Sh47.4 billion was channelled to various accounts to cater for personal emoluments and other expenses

Mr Oparanya is accused of allocating a paltry one percent of the Sh1.6 billion to development.

The report shows that he allocated Sh74 million to development while the giant share was set aside for salaries and other county operations

OTHERS

The report states that Garissa’s Ali Korane did not allocate any amount to development in the first quarter, despite receiving Sh1.08 billion.

The case was the same for Baringo which received Sh575 million

Kiraitu Murungi's Meru County also did not allocate a single cent to development but spent 95 percent of its Sh1.7 billion allocation on recurrent expenditure.

Mr Ferdinand Waititu, (Kiambu) allocated only Sh56 million to development while salaries and county operations gobbled up the rest of the Sh1.6 billion allocation.

NEXT STEPS

On Monday, the governors held a day-long meeting with Controller of Budget Agnes Odhiambo and officials from Treasury and the Commission on Revenue Allocation and discussed the matter of financial allocations and use.

Details of the meeting were scanty but the Nation learnt that the governors present expressed anger at the report and accused Ms Odhiambo of preparing it without reaching out to them to understand the challenges they go through.

“We have discussed the matter with her,” Mr Oparanya confirmed without giving details. “I can assure the country that it is going to hear more from the Controller of Budget.”

The chair has slated a full council meeting for January 31 for solutions to be considered.