Governor Bii’s Administration Rated Among Top Five Counties in Absorption of Development Expenditure

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The Office of the Controller of Budget (OCoB) , an oversight institution established under Article 228 of the Constitution of Kenya, 2010 has  ranked Uasin Gishu County  among the leading counties in  absorption of county governments  development expenditure  as a percentage of  the total   county expenditure .

The Controller of Budget report released on Monday has indicated that Uasin Gishu county was able to spend 30.8% of the total expenditure into development after Marsabit  and Baringo Counties .

Uasin Gishu County Government annual own source revenue for the financial year 2022/2023 was   at ksh 9.6M from the estimated Annual own source revenue of KSh 1.4B

Analysis of own source revenue as a proportion of the annual revenue target indicates that Lamu, Kirinyaga and Kitui counties outperformed their annual targets at 119.8 per cent, 112.3 per cent and110.6 per cent, respectively.

Conversely, seven counties recorded below 50 per cent performance: Nyamira, Marsabit, Mandera, Murangá, Wajir, Kisumu and Kericho.

Uasin Gishu  Countie’s Development Expenditure for the Financial year 2022/2023  was Kshs 3.2B while ksh 2,9Bwas  spent on Operations & Maintenance, and  KSh 4.2B was utilized on Personnel Emoluments.

The County   attained 38.2% of County Governments’ Development Budget Allocation as a Percentage of Total Budget placing it in the fifth position after Marsabit ,Baringo,Kwale  and Nakuru Counties.

Analysis of expenditure by department shows that the Department of Promotive and Preventive Health recorded the highest absorption rate of development budget at 100 per cent, followed by the Department of Co-operatives and Enterprise Development at 98 per cent.

The County Assembly and the Department of Education and Vocational Training had the highest percentage of recurrent expenditure to budget at 100 percent, while the Department of Energy, Environment, Climate Change and Natural Resources had the lowest at 61.1 per cent.

“Five county governments had below 50 per cent absorption rate for their development budgets which include  Kisii, Kiambu, Nakuru, Busia and Machakos.”

The Office of the Controller of Budget (OCoB) has  however  observed  Discrepancies of Kshs.870M between the reported cash balances brought forward in the budget of Kshs. 2.1 billion and the actual cash balance of Kshs.1.22 billion, made up of Kshs.403.91 million from unspent additional allocations, and Kshs.821.41 million balance in the CRF account at the Central Bank of Kenya.

Personnel emoluments amounting to Kshs.778.6 million were processed through the manual payroll, accounting for 18.6 per cent of the total payroll cost.

The OCoB has advised that The County Treasury should ensure timely preparation and submission of financial reports to the Office of the Controller of Budget in line with Section 166 of the PFM Act, 2012. And that The County should address its own-source revenue performance to ensure the approved budget is fully financed.

“The Government requires that salaries be processed through the IPPD system, and the County is advised to fast-track the acquisition of Unified Personnel Numbers for their staff. The County Public Service Board should regulate staff engagement on contract and casual workers as provided under Section 74 of the County Governments Act 2012. Further, there should be strict compliance with the approved staff establishment.” Read the report

The aggregate FY 2022/23 County Government’s budgets approved by the County Assemblies amounted to Kshs.515.18 billion and comprised of Kshs.160.54 billion (31.2 per cent) and Kshs.354.64 billion (68.8 per cent) allocated for development and recurrent expenditure, respectively.

During the reporting period, county governments generated a total of Kshs37.81 billion from their own sources of revenue (OSR), which was 65.9 per cent of the annual target of Kshs.57.37 billion. This was an improvement compared to Kshs.35.91 billion generated in the previous financial year.

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