Committee argues that variance in the costs of construction is wide
It says therefore that guidelines are required.
Recently approved budgets for all the 47 counties contain billions of shillings set aside for the construction of official residences.
A Senate committee has asked the Controller of Budget to suspend funds for all projects on construction of residences for governors, their deputies and county assembly speakers appropriated in the 2018/19 budgets.
The Budget and Finance committee wants to engage stakeholders to review the projects' structural designs to ensure they are rationalised and harmonised.
The team argues that variance in the costs of construction is wide and guidelines are required.
The team chair, Mohamed Muhamud, told the media at Parliament that counties have invested heavily on non-core projects at the expense of key ones.
He said the costs vary depending on the county, noting that the stakeholders will need to agree on the scope of the works to be done in the projects. “Counties are investing heavily in non-core projects at the expense of core projects and our mandate is ensure that public funds are used prudently,” Mr Muhamud said.
The recently approved budgets of all the 47 counties contain billions of shillings set aside for the construction of official residences.
The amounts set aside the construction of a governor's residence vary from between Sh100 million to Sh250 million.
The committee noted that this had been done without the input of the Ministry of Public Works on the design of bills of quantities.
The committee says the projected construction costs without technical input from the ministry will be open to abuse, pointing out that the counties have no capacity to absorb the billions set out in the budgets.
For example, Kirinyaga county has set aside Sh100 million for the construction of the governor’s residence, while Embu has allocated Sh75 million while Isiolo has allocated Sh60 million.
Kilifi County has set aside Sh214 million for the construction of a deputy governor’s official residence while it has also allocated Sh200 million for the construction of the Speaker’s residence.
Nairobi has allocated Sh130 million for the speaker’s residence, Uasin Gishu (Sh80 million) while Garissa has allocated Sh75 million.
Embu County has set aside Sh335 million for the construction of County Assembly Offices, Kilifi has allocated Sh500 million, Nyandarua (Sh442 million), Nairobi (Sh400 million), Uasin Gishu (Sh850 million), Bungoma Sh400 million and Samburu Sh320 million
Nyandarua county has allocated Sh800 million for the construction of the county government executive offices.
Huge variation
Mr Muhamud said the huge variation in the allocation of the projects was because counties are struggling to comply with the circulation issued by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) that mandated the counties to prioritise the construction of official residences for the two officers in the 2018/18 financial year.
The committee has asked the SRC to revoke the circular and publish the revocation within seven days.
The committee also wants the county governments to suspend all expenditures on the county infrastructural projects and put all the contracts on hold until further directions are given by the relevant authorities.
