Expert Opinion

The County diary

9th January,2019.

There has been cold war between kitui county Assembly and the Executive for the couple of weeks in regard to the interpretation of public finance Management act, and the rejection of executive supplementary budget by section of MCAs.

Hard question has been asked did the assembly follow the procedure through the assembly committees? Did they to go through the supplementary documents or Not ? Surprisingly we have interacted with many on social media who completely have not gone the documents for the reasons better known to them, Nevertheless its good to know The primary section that guides a supplementary budget is Section 135 of pFM Act which says that a county govt can spend upto 10% before county assembly approval.

Any higher percentage should get county assembly approval before spending. One important matter that must be put in mind is that of pending bills that cross over from one financial year to another which must, by law, be treated as a first charge, hence their payments must be prioritized.

In many cases, you can only do so through a supplementary budget. Recently, the County Allocation of Revenue Act(CARA) for 2018/19 FY was amended and signed by the president Uhuru kenyatta immediately after new year.

This changed some allocations and automatically calls for a supplementary budget to align expenditure to the changes passed by senate, Also, as a matter of fact in his regard kitui supplementary budget was first supplementary budget this year and was critical for addressing the emerging needs in addition to payment of pending bills.

Moreover, 90% of counties have by now revised their budgets because its the right thing to do. The National Govt has also done theirs. So for the record of clarity and to clarify to all sundry over there that there was absolutely nothing unlawful in that budget.

it was well grounded in law and the most prudent thing for the county at that moment. It’s unfortunate Kitui will lag behind on timely approvals on budgetary matters and this will drag release of funds as well as development when in actual fact we have been doing so well. As a matter of fact, refusing to approve a supplementary budget that is within the required thresholds is in fact unlawful and against the spirit of the above quoted PFM section, the aim of which was to ensure minimum disruption in service delivery.

The only way out of this impasse is to drop the hard-line stand between the two Waring arm of government and agree on how to work together for the benefit of the poor people, interesting the ground is now hostile for MCAs.

End.