•Cash crisis in counties seems far from after a fresh dispute erupted in Parliament over the commencement date of the Division of Revenue Bill, 2019.
•The counties had hoped to receive the cash by the end of the month following the passage of the Bill last week after a three-month standoff.
Image: EZEKIEL AMING'A
A fresh dispute has erupted in Parliament over the date when the Division of Revenue Bill, 2019, takes effect.
The devolved units had hoped to receive the cash by the end of the month after the bill was passed last week following a three-month stand-off.
However, it seems they will have to wait longer to get money after senators yesterday detected an "anomaly" in the mediated version of the bill passed in the National Assembly.
While senators had passed that the meditation version of bill takes effect upon gazettement, their counterparts in the National assembly passed the bill and backdated it to July 1.
The bill had been sent to an 18-member mediation committee after the two Houses differed on the amount that should allocated to the devolved units in the current financial year. The mediation team agreed on Sh316 billion in its report tabled in both Houses.
The latest stalemate now points to another round of meditation talks between the two houses, a situation that could delay cash disbursement and worsen the crisis in the counties.
“Our counterparts in the National Assembly have become extremely rogue. They they are now practising conmanship and forgery. They have sneaked what we did not agree in our mediation talks," Finance and Budget Committee chairman Senator Mohammed Mahamud said.
The Mandera Senator added, “We had only two issues on the meditation table, the Sh6 billion leased medical equipment and the Sh316 billon county allocation. The issue of backdating the Division of Revenue Bill commencement date was not one of them."
Makueni Senator and Minority Chief Whip Mutula Kilonzo Jr, who sat in the meditation committee, said their counterparts "sneaked and inserted the date by handwriting” in the new bill.
Mutula said the National Assembly’s aim was to legitimise the Appropriation Act, 2019, which was enacted before the Division of Revenue Bill, 2019.
“How can you purport to bring an issue which was not in the meditation? How do you regularise the Appropriation Act Bill 2019 by backdating Division of Revenue?” Mutula asked.
The senator argued that it was illegal for the President to sign the Appropriation Bill, 2019, into law before the approval of the Division of Revenue. The Act is among the 21 pieces of legislation the Senate challenged their legality in the High Court.
Appropriation Act, 2019, allows the national government to spent resources on budgeted projects and programmes while Division of Revenue divides all the monies collected by the National Treasury between the national and county governments.
“The only way to resolve this dispute is to go back to mediation on this specific issue of commencement date,” Mutula said.
Senate Speaker Kenneth Lusaka is today expected to issue a communication on the "anomaly" detected in the report tabled in the National Assembly.
Finance and Budget Committee chairman Mohamud will today introduce the County Allocation of Revenue Bill on the floor. The bill splits among the 47 counties the Sh316 billion allocated to the devolved units in the Division of Revenue Bill.
Thereafter, cash disbursement schedules – which stipulates the amount every county will revive per month, will be introduced and passed before they devolved units get the cash.
Kitui Central MP Makali Mulu, who also sat in the mediation committee, said they had been advised to backdate the bill to July 1 to allow counties receive their monies as scheduled.
Mulu said as the National Treasury releases monies to pay service providers and county workers arrears for July and August, the counties will a legal cure.
“The financial year starts in July 1, what we did was to cushion ourselves in law, so that when the National Treasury releases monies from July, there is a legal framework,” he said.