Lawmakers should look beyond the National Government Constituency Development Fund (NG-CDF) in the push for timely release of budget funds.
MPs drawn from both the ruling and opposition, have united in threatening to impeach Treasury Cabinet Secretary Njuguna Ndung’u, over delays to disburse NG-CDF billions, which they say is scuttling programmes at constituency level.
NG-CDF represents just a small portion of the trillions of shillings in the budget and MPs should therefore show the same level of passion and unity and push for timely release of money meant for equally important programmes such as development projects in counties.
Many counties have for instance blamed the many stalled development projects and the piling pending bills on failure or delay by the Treasury to disburse money. A similar pattern plays out in ministries and State departments.
Delays in disbursements denies Kenyans from getting the outcomes desired in the budget. MPs should not therefore be turning a blind eye when counties, State corporations, ministries and agencies complain over delayed disbursement of money from Treasury and only come out passionately when delays affect a kittyclosest to their hearts.
The National Assembly owes Kenyans a duty of care in ensuring the government delivers on all the programmes that it presented in Parliament through Treasury when it was justifying increased size of budget and enhanced taxation measures.