Governors have faulted MPs for rejecting the increment of the equitable revenue to counties for the next financial year.
Kakamega governor Fernandes Barasa who chairs the Finance and Economic Planning committee at the Council of Governors (CoG) said Tuesday that the lawmakers’ action was insensitive of the needs of counties.
He said that devolved units require more funds to implement projects and be able to achieve the objectives of devolution.
“I find fault with the National Assembly Budget Committee for rejecting Senators’ proposal to increase counties' allocation to Sh 415 billion. Counties have medical equipment to be serviced and various other functions which have been devolved but not funded,” Barasa said.
“In the previous financial year, the national government devolved more roles to the counties and therefore adding less than Sh 20 billion to be divided among the 47 counties makes it strenuous to successfully run critical functions like health and agriculture among others,” he said.
Barasa was speaking during an inspection tour of maize farms in various wards in Mumias East, Matungu and Khwisero sub-counties.
This follows claims that the subsidised fertiliser supplied by the county government was fake. The county has since dismissed the reports as mere political misinformation.
MPs rejected a proposal by senators to increase allocation of funds to counties on Monday.
They argued that increased counties' funds would mean a reduction to the National Government -Constituency Development Fund.
Kiharu MP Ndindi Nyoro who chairs the Budget committee clarified that the country was working with a budget of about Sh4.1 trillion each year.
This had then been reduced to Sh3.8 trillion and a ceiling of Sh391 billion for counties has been set proposing to increase the allocation to counties to Sh415 billion as proposed by the Senate impossible.
Further, he added that the National Government operates on a fixed envelope and the proposed increase will not only affect NG-CDF but also the NGAAF.
