Kitui government workers will wait longer for July salaries following an impasse between the assembly and the executive over the 2020-21 budget, county secretary Joshua Chepchieng has said.
In an August 10 letter to all chief officers, Chepchieng said that there will be an unusual delay in paying salaries and wages but a process to solve the matter is on.
“A formal mediation process between the county assembly and county executive guided by the Controller of Budget aimed at unlocking the impasse is ongoing,” the letter reads.
Further, the county secretary said that the assembly has yet to give the executive vote on account approval pending the consideration and approval of budget estimates for the 2020-21 financial year.
“This state of affairs has made the county executive unable to incur expenditure on various items including the processing of salaries,” Chepchieng said.
The assembly’s Budget and Appropriations Committee chair Boniface Kilaa told the employees to brace for tough times ahead as the county had no money owing to the budget crisis.
Kilaa said that the county Finance executive had failed to submit the Kitui County Appropriation Bill, 2020, 30 days after the assembly approved it on June 30.
“The Public Finance Management Act, 2012 requires the CECM for Finance to submit the Appropriation Bill within a period of seven days after the passage of budget estimates but that has not been the case. Instead, county minister submitted a memorandum of objection to the resolutions adopted by the House on the budget estimates on July 1, 2020 and a letter requesting a resolution on a vote on account on the estimates,” he said.
Kilaa said that the Finance executive ought to submit to the assembly the Appropriations Bill within seven days and in line with the duly approved budget estimates.
“Failure to do so, this House shall discuss the conduct of the Finance executive,” he warned.
Majority leader Peter Kilonzo said that it was premature for the Executive to object to negotiation with the Controller of Budget.
“The Executive’s actions are detrimental to the welfare of county staff and development in this county because it has paralysed payment of salaries and provision of critical services like healthcare,” he said.
Benjamin Munyalo, Union of Kenya Civil Servants Kitui secretary, said they are tired of the cat and mouse games with the county government. They cannot work without salaries, he said.
Kenya County Government Workers Union Kitui branch chair Stephen Kitheka said the Charity Ngilu-led administration was noncommittal about timely payment of employees’ salaries.
