The portion of public revenue allocated to counties for 2018/19 is set to drop by 1.5 percentage points compared to the current financial year, even as the national government grows it pie.
Estimates tabled in Parliament on Thursday show that the 47 counties will share Sh314 billion in the financial year that begins July 1, accounting for 18 per cent of the Sh1.743 trillion ordinary revenue that the government seeks to collect over the period.
By comparison, the Treasury handed the counties Sh302 billion or 19.5 per cent of the Sh1.549 trillion that the State intends to collect in the current financial year that ends June 30. In absolute sense, however, 2018/19 allocation is Sh12 billion more than what the counties have to share in the current financial year.
“This allocation, which represents 33.6 per cent of the latest audited revenue of 2013/14 is above the constitutional minimum of 15 per cent,” says Treasury secretary Henry Rotich in the estimates.
The proposed allocation accounts for 33.6 per cent of the Sh935.7 billion collected five financial years ago, in 2013/14.
Article 203 of the Constitution requires that the counties’ equitable share of national revenue be fixed at no less than 15 per cent of the “most recent audited revenue accounts approved by Parliament.”
Mr Rotich has relied on the five-year-old financial statement to allocate money to the devolved units, citing delays by Parliament to approve the latest documents.
The allocation for the next financial year was agreed with the governors early this year. When he addressed governors attending the Intergovernmental Budget and Economic Council meeting, Deputy President William Ruto appeared to sell the proposed 33.6 per cent allocation as indicating commitment to end counties’ financial woes.
“For the first time in the last five years, I must say this is the only time we have agreed on revenue share without any push and pull,” Mr Ruto said.
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