Most counties have budget deficits because they under-collected or deliberately failed to declare total revenues, Auditor General Edward Ouko has said.
In the 2016-17 report tabled in the Senate yesterday, Ouko says at least five counties collected revenues that are way below those in the budgets and they could not explain that. The counties include Baringo, Embu, Kitui, Laikipia, Mandera and Wajir.
Wajir had a target of Sh230 million but only collected Sh75 million. This was a decline from the Sh108,144,589 and Sh81,754,275 collected in 2014-15 and 2015-16.
Mandera targetted Sh265 million but only got a paltry Sh55 million. In Baringo, the revenue collected was Sh281 million against a target of Sh330 million, Embu projected Sh809 million but only collected Sh391 million.
“In addition, a review of the trends for the past two financial years revealed a decline in revenue collection,” Ouko said.