Mistakes by counties and national government ministries denied Kenyans Sh9.3 billion conditional grants last year.
About Sh1.04 billion for youth polytechnics and Sh605 million set aside for county headquarters was held back for failure to follow requirements on conditional allocations, the National Treasury said.
Six counties failed to comply with Kenya Roads Board Act and missed out on Sh844.9 million Road Maintenance Levy.
“Aggregate payments to counties in FY 2018/19 amounted to Sh360.1 billion, representing 96 percent of the County Revenue Allocation Act, 2018. The shortfall arises because of failure by some counties to adhere to requirements of specific conditional allocations,” Treasury Principal Secretary Julius Muia said.
It was not just mistakes at county level where staff qualification has been questioned but also the personnel quality. The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission says in Vihiga alone, only six out of the 144 treasury staff are qualified accountants.
Some officers in ministries forgot to write to Treasury requesting for money as per the 2017 guidelines on intergovernmental fiscal transfers.
As such counties missed out on Sh880 million for the Water tower protection, climate change mitigation and adaptation programme; and Sh3.8 billion for the water and Sanitation development project.
The Treasury too did not understand World Banks criteria for determining how some counties would get access to some Sh2.3 billion under the Kenya devolution support programme based on some indicators.
The money was held back pending restructuring of the programme.
Counties also lost access to billions meant for free maternity, which is now channelled through the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF).
“In FY 2017/18 and FY 2018/19, Sh3.4 billion and Sh4.3 billion, respectively, from the National Government’s revenue share was paid to NHIF as a special grant for Free Maternal Healthcare, to be disbursed directly to Counties,” Mr Muia said.
This comes ahead of today’s meeting between senators and MPs to unlock stalemate that has seen MPs stick with Sh316 billion allocation to counties while senators insist that they will not take anything less than Sh335 billion.
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