• The CoB and the governor appeared before the Senate Devolution and Intergovernmental Relations Committee, a meeting snubbed by MCAs.
• The committee had invited the assembly Majority leader and the chairperson of the Assembly Budget and Appropriations Committee to the meeting.
Image: EZEKIEL AMINGA
Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakango has waded into the budget standoff in Kirinyaga as wrangles between Governor Anne Waiguru and the county assembly rage.
Nyakango on Tuesday sided with Waiguru, accusing the MCAs of what she termed "wrong order of things" and violation of laws in approving the 2020-21 county Budget and Appropriations Bill.
This, even as the Budget boss warned that the county government risks plunging into a cash crisis after the governor moved to court to stop the implementation of the contentious Appropriations Bill passed by the assembly.
The Bill, which was rejected by the governor before the MCAs overturned her memorandum, was set to come into effect on Thursday after the lapse of the seven-day period provided for in law.
However, the court put an injunction on its implementation.
Nyakango reiterated that the effect of the order was that the assembly could not pass a vote on account that it would allow the county government to access up to 50 per cent of the total allocation until the case is heard and determined.
The CoB and the governor appeared before the Senate Devolution and Intergovernmental Relations Committee, a meeting that was snubbed by the ward representatives.
The panel chaired by Homa Bay Senator Moses Kajwang' is seeking to arbitrate wrangles following a petition by Waiguru to the Senate to intervene on the standoff.
The committee had invited the assembly Majority leader and the chairperson of the Budget and Appropriations Committee to the meeting.
But the ward reps said in a letter to the committee that they would appear on Monday next week. They also sought a physical meeting as opposed to the virtual one.
Kajwang ordered the MCAs to virtually appear before the committee on Wednesday.
The ward reps, whose recent bid to impeach the embattled governor flopped in the Senate, are embroiled in a political battle that has brought the county to a near standstill.
At the centre of the struggle is the passage of the 2020-21 Budget and the Appropriations Bill.
The governor has accused the ward reps of overhauling her administration’s budget, slashing crucial allocations, including those meant for payment of salaries, statutory deductions and pending bills without consultation.
While presenting her case to the committee, the governor accused the MCAs of altering the executive’s budget, a move she insisted was politically instigated to bring her administration to a halt.
“This budget that was approved by the county assembly was political and done in bad faith, only aimed at grounding the operations of the county government,” Waiguru said.
Nyakango, whose office is tasked with ensuring the county and national government institutions’ budget conform to the law, said that after analysing the budget approved by the assembly she realised the law was violated.
“After identifying the areas which were not compliant with the law, the assembly went ahead and just prepared their own budget, so to say. This one was without any consultation, as we have confirmed, that it [budget] did not come from the CEC finance as is allowed in the PFM Act,” she said.
In particular, the CoB pointed out that the MCAs violated PFM Act and the accompanying regulations when they altered the budget by more than one per cent.
“PFM County Government Regulations 2015 specify that where a county assembly approves any changes in the annual estimates, any increase or reduction in the expenditure of the vote shall not exceed one per cent,” she said.
Further, she said that the county assembly increased the development vote by Sh631 million without consulting the Finance CEC contrary to the law.
CoB accused the MCAs of allocating themselves more money, contrary to the law that provides that the assembly should not get more than seven per cent of the county total revenue or should not exceed twice the personnel emolument of that county assembly, whichever is lower.
“One area that was affected was personnel salaries, which was changed from Sh2.96 billion to Sh2.6 billion, a reduction of 12.4 per cent. This was against the law,” Nyakango noted.
Waiguru had submitted that the MCAs had cut salaries budget by close to Sh400 million, slashed Sh58.6 million mean for payment of statutory deductions owed to KRA and Sh30 million set aside for payment of pending bills.
Edited by Henry Makori