Sh377bn county funds top agenda as House resumes

The passage of two Bills to guide the allocation of Sh377.6 billion by counties tops the legislative agenda as Parliament reconvenes next week

A schedule released by the National Assembly showed that legislators will prioritise the passage of the Divisions of Revenue Bill and the County Allocation of Revenue Bill when they resume sittings on Tuesday.

The National Assembly and the Senate will, however first consider and approve the Budget Policy Statement (BPS) for the financial year 2021/22 and the Annual Revenue Bills.

“This will pave the way for the introduction and passage of the annual Divisions of Revenue Bill and the County Allocation of Revenue Bill by both Houses,” Mr Michael Sialai, the clerk of the National Assembly said in a brief.

The enactment of the two Bills allows for the withdrawal of the funds from Treasury's Consolidated Fund by the national government and facilitates the transfer of the money to respective County Revenue Fund.

The Treasury has allocated counties Sh377.6 billion while the rest of the Sh3.02 trillion budget will be spent by the national government in the financial year starting July 1.

Counties went without funds from the start of the current financial year on July 1, after senators failed to agree on a new revenue sharing formula to guide allocation for the next five years, precipitating a near shutdown of the devolved units.

The timely passage of the Bills will help ease liquidity problem the economy is facing as a result of pile-up of pending bills owed to suppliers by both levels of government.

Failure to clear pending bills has been blamed on the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and the containment measures that generally slowed down the pace of economic activities from March last year.