Senate sets up fight with MPs after adding counties Sh23bn

What you need to know:

The Senate has sided with a CRA proposal to peg the equitable sharable revenue to counties at Sh314.7 billion, up from the Sh291 billion that had been set by the National Assembly.
The Treasury had earlier allocated the governors Sh299 billion to share among the 47 county governments in the financial year starting July, but MPs cut the allocation by Sh8 billion.
This means that the differences between the Senate and the National Assembly figures will result in a mediation process.

The Senate has handed governors an additional Sh23 billion to finance devolved government operations in the year starting July, triggering a potential stalemate with the National Assembly that had reduced the Treasury’s proposal by Sh8 billion.

The Senate has sided with a Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA) proposal to peg the equitable sharable revenue to counties at Sh314.7 billion, up from the Sh291 billion that had been set by the National Assembly.

The Treasury had earlier allocated the governors Sh299 billion to share among the 47 county governments in the financial year starting July.

But the National Assembly cut the allocation by Sh8 billion and increased that of the national government by Sh5.5 billion to Sh1.238 trillion.

This means that the differences between the Senate and the National Assembly figures will result in a mediation process to find an agreeable amount to be included in the Division of Revenue Bill, 2017 before it is enacted into law.

The mediation process could delay the passage of the County Allocation of Revenue Bill, which shares the equitable sharable revenue among the 47 devolved governments.

The Council of Governors (CoG) and the CRA last week petitioned the Senate to increase the amount of sharable revenue after the National Assembly’s Budget committee cut the Treasury allocation to Sh291 billion.

The CoG had asked the Senate to increase the allocations to Sh322 billion as recommended by the CRA to ease effects of the rising inflation, high cost of service delivery and increase in population.