COB report exposes Six Governors for overshooting county current expenditure by over 750 percent
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COB report exposes Six Governors for overshooting county current expenditure by over 750 percent with allocation on development
COB report exposes Six Governors for overshooting county current expenditure by over 750 percent with allocation on development.
According to the latest report, all the governors violated the law that requires a minimum of 30 percent of the county government’s budget to be allocated to development expenditures.
While some continue to spend lavishly on consumption, they have very little money set aside for growth.
In other counties, the ratio has blown out to Sh100.
Ideally, spending on recurrent items like salaries and allowances should not exceed Sh2.33 for every Sh1 allocated for development.
According to the most recent report by the Controller of Budget (COB), while no county met the legal requirement to allocate at least 30% of resources to development over the course of seven months to the end of January 2023, nearly half flagrantly violated the requirement, sometimes by as much as 4,000%.
The report shows that Governor Simba Arati of Kisii, who has been loud in his efforts to weed out ghost workers from the county since being sworn in, is spending the least on development.
The COB report shows that over the six months, he has been in office, for each shilling he requested to channel to the county’s development projects, he requested Sh93 to use on recurrent activities, mainly on salaries and allowances.
Since being sworn in as the governor on August 25, 2022, until January 31, 2023, Mr. Arati requested Sh3.3 billion to fund its recurrent budget and only Sh35.3 million for development.
He overshot on recurrent expenditure by 3,886 percent as compared to spending on development.
Meru County Governor Kawira Mwangaza over the six troubled months she has been in office channeled over 98 percent of resources to salaries and allowances, with the county’s development programmes left with a paltry 1.8 percent.
The governor requested Sh3.77 billion for recurrent activities, but only Sh70 million for development, with salaries and O&Ms forming 52 of the 59 money requests the county made to fund its recurrent budget.
Lamu also followed with huge allocations on the recurrent budget.
While the county received Sh1.39 billion for spending on recurrent activities, only Sh35.8 million was received for development.
This means that for every Sh1 that went into development for Lamu residents, Governor Issa Timamy spent Sh38.7 on salaries, allowances, and other recurrent spending. The development budget’s share was a mere 2.5 percent.
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In Machakos and Migori, for every shilling the counties received to fund development activities, it received at least Sh22 to channel to recurrent activities.
The counties are headed by governors Wavinya Ndeti (Machakos) and Ochilo Ayacko (Migori).
Governor Susan Kihika of Nakuru for every Sh1 spent on development, Sh20.8 went into recurrent activities.
All the above six counties, which overshot spending on recurrent by over 750 percent, are headed by newly elected governors, with Mr. Timamy the only one who has served in the post before — between 2013 and 2017.
The other counties in the top 10, according to the COB report, also spent beyond the allowable Sh2.33 on recurrent for every shilling put into development, spending between Sh12 and Sh20, in total breach of the law.
They are Kiambu whose governor is Kimani Wamatangi (Sh19.9), Kitui whose governor is Julius Malombe (Sh19), Bungoma whose governor Ken Lusaka was Senate speaker until the 2022 elections and also served as governor of the county between 2013 and 2017 (Sh18) and Makueni County of Mutula Kilonzo Jr (Sh17).
The priorities exhibited by the governors on resource allocation position them as leaders interested in promoting consumption, rather than development for their residents.
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