Pay delays as eight counties yet to get cash from Treasury

Eight counties are yet to receive a cent from the Treasury in the first four months of the financial year to October, leading to delay in payments of workers’ pay, suppliers debt and new development projects.

The latest Kenya Gazette notice indicate that  Mandera, Kitui, Makueni, Baringo, Nakuru, Kisii, Nyamira and Nyeri have not been allocated their share of the Sh302 billion set aside for counties for the year to June next year.

The Treasury has allocated the remaining 39 counties Sh35.3 billion during the four months with Nairobi getting the lion’s share of Sh5 billion followed by Kiambu’s Sh2.3 billion.

Controller of Budget—who approves release of cash from the government’s  main account—said the Treasury’s accounting unit is best placed to explain the cash hitch in the eight counties.

The counties have had to endure a four-months cash crunch following contradictions between the County Allocation of Revenue Act (CARA) 2017 assented to by President Uhuru Kenyatta and the disbursement schedule approved by the Senate.

It is highly probable that the eight counties did not receive a coin from Treasury because the Controller of Budget did not authorise withdrawals due to anomalies in their budgets.

The law allows the Controller of Budget to authorise withdrawal of funds by counties based on the passage of their respective county budgets and the national Treasury to disburse counties’ share of revenue by the 15th date of every month.

Delays in release of money means economic activities might grind to a halt as workers go without pay and payments to suppliers are frozen.

The Treasury in mid-October advanced a total of Sh20.4 billion to some county governments to enable them pay salaries and provide essential services.

Total allocation to the counties in the current financial year stands at Sh329.96 billion, which consists of the equitable share of national government revenue of Sh306.2 billion and conditional grants of Sh23.3 billion from the State and development partners.

The Senate in the first week of September approved the Treasury’s cash transfer schedule for all counties that will run from July this year to June 2018.