• The counties will not receive funds from the National Treasury if the Senators and MPs fail to pass the Bill before the end of the current financial year.
• While MPs wanted the counties allocated Sh316 billion, Senators insisted on Sh327 billion.
Image: ENOS TECHE
The crucial bill on county funds is set to be re-introduced in Parliament as MPs and Senators race against time to save counties from financial problems.
This even as questions continue to be raised about the legality of the budget statement unveiled by Treasury CS Henry Rotich last Thursday.
National Assembly Majority leader Aden Duale said the Division of Revenue Bill will be re-introduced in the house this week with a view to passing it by June 30, to save the devolved units.
The counties will not receive funds from the National Treasury if the legislators fail to pass the Bill before the end of the current financial year. They cannot also prepare their budgets for the year.
“I can tell you without any fear of contradiction that we will ask the speaker to use his powers under Standing Order one to publish the Bill. We will introduce it this week in the house,’ he said.
Last week, members of the mediation committee appointed by the speakers of the bicameral parliament differed sharply, leading to the collapse of the talks, only hours to the unveiling of the budget.
While MPs wanted the counties allocated Sh316 billion, Senators insisted on Sh327 billion.
With the talks collapsing, Rotich unveiled the Sh3.02 trillion 2019-20 budget statement without the passage of the Bill.
The bill is crucial legislation that spells out the sharing of revenue between the national and county governments for the 2019-20 financial year that starts on July 1.
Duale defended the Rotich, saying that his move to read the budget without the passage of the crucial bill does not mount to violation of the law.
“The CS Treasury read the budget for the Judiciary, PSC and National Government,” he said.
The Garissa Town MP downplayed the assertion that the counties will be plunged into a cash crisis, saying the Treasury CS will advance an overdraft to the counties until the Bill is passed.
Senators, while debating the legality of the budget as Rotich read it in the National Assembly, said that it was unconstitutional for him to unveil the budget without the passage of the Division of Revenue.
“The process which CS Rotich started today while it seems to be in line with the Constitution, but it is not because you cannot finalize the process without the Division of Revenue Act being in place,” Finance Committee chairman Mohamud Mohamed said.
He added that the national and county governments are both in a financial quagmire because they cannot spend before the Appropriations Bill is passed, a piece of legislation that can only be passed by the house after the Approval of the Division of Revenue.
“The Appropriation Act must be assented to after the Division of Revenue Act is in place. Senators must be alive to that fact,” he said.
He added, “There is no crisis for the counties alone. The crisis will be for the country as a whole. Without the Division of Revenue Act in place, there will be no consolation by the national Government that they are going to spend money and appropriate funds while the counties will not have the same privilege.”
Makueni Senator Mutula Kilonzo Jr said the mediation talks collapsed due to MPs’ demeaning and unbecoming character and behaviour towards senators.
“We were treated to a condescending attitude. We were given nursery lectures about our mandate. Somebody had the audacity to purport that our mandate under the Division of Revenue and Mediation was to look at one small portion of the Schedule, which was county Revenue,” he said.