The push and pull between the Nairobi Metropolitan Services and City Hall over finances and staff secondment continues despite three sittings, at the AG's office, of a team set up to sort out the matter.
On Tuesday, team leader Ken Ogeto, who is the Solicitor General, asked for 30 more days to reach a consensus.
The three meetings at the Attorney General’s office were attended by NMS and county executive representatives.
Governor Mike Sonko is the head of the county executive.
The dispute is about the mode of financing and secondment of staff to the NMS.
The team was set up after Sonko, on July 24, went to court over the implementation of the Deed of Transfer of functions agreement signed at State House in February.
The court gave the parties a September 18 deadline to regularise the Deed of Transfer.
Sonko spokesman Ben Mulwa said on Tuesday the NMS had raised the issue of pending bills, intending to take them over.
“In the past meeting, NMS raised an issue of them wanting to take over the pending bills. As a county we are wondering why they are interested in pending bills which are as old as 2011 even before the county was established,” Mulwa said.
The NMS wants all contracts and pending bills to be its responsibility. The functions transferred to the state by the county government are health services, transport, planning and development, and public works and utilities.
The Sonko government is of the view that the NMS, which reports to President Uhuru Kenyatta, is overstepping its mandate and that finance is not one of the transferred functions.
On finance matters, City Hall says money should be transferred to the County Revenue Funds before it is channelled to the NMS for allocation.
It also wants funds for both entities to based on the actual cash flow and revenue and not on the budget with the two sharing available funds in accordance with the transferred functions.
However, the NMS wants the funds from the National Treasury to go directly to its account.
During the sittings, City Hall was also concerned about the secondment of staff to the NMS, the governor’s official residence and the ceremonial car.
It was resolved that the County Public Service Board, the NMS and the Public Service Commission should agree on how the staff secondment issue should be resolved.
The NMS agreed to give back the ceremonial vehicle but wanted more deliberations on the governor's residence.
The joint team of NMS, City Hall and AG officials has 14 days to come up with recommendations on the resolution of other contentious issues.
- mwaniki fm
