The Senate standing committee on Finance, Budget and Commerce has rejected the allocation of Sh291 billion as approved by the National Assembly and stuck to the Sh314 billion it proposed in an earlier Bill, throwing county operations into a crisis.
Failure to have the legislation in place means that counties cannot proceed to prepare their annual budgets.
Operations of the 47 county governments could grind to a halt after Senators rejected a Bill seeking to allocate devolved units Sh291 billion for the next financial year.
The Senate standing committee on Finance, Budget and Commerce has rejected the allocation of Sh291 billion as approved by the National Assembly and stuck to the Sh314 billion it proposed in an earlier Bill, throwing county operations into a crisis.
The 11th Parliament comes to a close on Thursday to pave the way for the General Election, leaving the Division of Revenue Bill that determines how equitably national revenue will be shared among 47 devolved units without being passed.
Parliament must first approve the Division of Revenue Bill to pave the way for passage of the County Allocation of Revenue Bill that determines how much each county gets.
Failure to have the legislation in place means that counties cannot proceed to prepare their annual budgets.
The move might halt provision of services in the 47 counties from next month, if an emergency siting of the MPs is not sought.
The law allows the Controller of Budget to authorise withdrawal of funds by counties based on the passage of their respective county budgets.
“We have deliberated and agreed to reject the Sh291 billion that the National Assembly wants counties allocated for the 2017/18 financial year. As such, unless we are headed for mediation, the Bill will be handled by the next Parliament,” Billow Kerrow, who chairs the Senate Finance, Budget and Commerce committee said at a meeting to consider the Bill on Monday.
A mediation committee drawing membership from the National Assembly and the Senate had in March failed to agree on the amount of money to be sent to the counties, frustrating efforts to pass the Division of Revenue Bill.
The Council of Governors (CoG) had raised the alarm last month over the slow progress in passage of the Bill.
“The County Governments might go into the new financial year without their budgets in place hence stagnating development and ultimately leading to chaotic transition process,” said the governors.
The Budget and Appropriations Committee (BAC) reintroduced the Bill last month with the Sh291 figure, an amount Senators had rejected.
A lack of consensus from both Houses on the Bill saw it forwarded to the mediation team on March 31 2017. The mediation period elapsed on April 30 2017.
The lawmakers have approved the Appropriations Act, 2017/18 which was assented into law by President Uhuru Kenyatta before the Division of Revenue and County Allocation of Revenue Bills are passed.
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