- Governors are fighting to take control of tenders.
- MCAs want to appropriate money and also oversight that.
Image: EZEKIEL AMING'A
Under the current constitution, the framers of the supreme law gave immense powers to county assemblies as custodians of devolution.
Under the supervision of the Senate, the county assemblies are expected to be immediate supervisors of the county executives.
Again, the same document did place the assembly almost at par with the executive.
MCAs, as the people’s representatives, have been doing their best in juggling between serving their electorate and keeping an eye on how the governors carry out their mandate.
Unfortunately, while the law is clear on what roles the MCAs are supposed to play, they have deliberately assigned themselves double roles making laws and implementing project in their wards.
The fights between MCAs and the governors emanate from the conflict of interest.
They want to allocate funds for projects through the budget in their wards and at the same time supervise the executive.
When a governor refuses to allow MCAs to carry out both roles, the fighting starts.
Some governors, being sticklers when it comes to the law, find themselves at loggerheads with MCAs.
In some instances, the governors also have an interest in project execution hence the endless squabbles.
The conflicting monetary interests have put devolution in jeopardy.
Were the two arms of government to stick to their set roles or duties as per the constitution, the impeachment motions or threats of impeachment would not be the order of the day.
Devolution is under serious threat by governors and MCAs determined to make money at the expense of serving the public.
Failure by the office of the Auditor General to carry out its mandate efficiently and on time, has allowed both the assemblies and county executives to fiddle cash allocated for county projects.
The senate should now come up with tough new rules on project implementation to ensure strict adherence of the law such that the governors do not have to look over their shoulders when carryout out their work.
The tendering process should be reviewed with a view to locking out both the executive and the MCA from undue influence.
For the sake of devolution, the Auditor General should have staff in at least three quarters of the counties if not all the 47.
The current scenario where skeleton staff based at regional offices visit counties for auditing of previous year's expenditures exposes them to easy manipulation and misinformation.
The Writer is a former Majority Leader of Nyamira county Assembly.