Kitui Governor Charity Ngilu has moved to court to compel the assembly speaker George Ndotto to release a statutory letter that would allow the executive access devolved funds.
According to suit papers filed in Kitui law courts, the speaker’s failure to communicate the assembly decision regarding the 2019-20 approved budget had made it difficult to access funds from National Treasury to pay county staff salaries for the month of June.
Ngilu sued after the Controller of Budgets wrote to the Kitui finance executive advising that his office can only authorise the release of funds after it is furnished with the letter from the speaker as required by the law.
The assembly passed the county budget on June 28 and the speaker was supposed to communicate in writing on or before July 5 which is within seven days window as per the law.
The court was told that failure on the part of Ndotto to carry out his administrative duty is unreasonable and unfair to the residents of Kitui county.
The county has had trouble with salaries, blamed on a supremacy contest after the county assembly rejected the supplementary budget.
The county had asked the county assembly to reallocate more funds to the salary vote after a shortfall occasioned by Sh498 million payment of tax arrears that accrued between 2013 to 2017 financial years.
The tax arrears covered the period before the current governor Charity Ngilu took office in August 2017.
