National Treasury Principal Secretary Chris Kiptoo has been summoned to explain the delays over cash disbursement delays that has caused massive cash crunch and disruption of services in the counties.
The summons by the Senate’s county public investments and special funds comes after the PS skipped an invitation by the panel to shed light on the delays that have made life difficult for governors and their governments.
The counties are in their fourth straight month without funds from the exchequer disbursements from the Treasury. The last disbursement was done in November last year.
Currently, the counties are owed Sh122.1 billion. The funds are outstanding disbursements for the months of December, January, February and March.
Committee chairman Godfrey Osotsi said the counties are "suffering", with most of them overstretched to the point that they cannot pay salaries of their staff.
“The last equitable share they received was in November. So, we are talking about four months. The counties are suffering,” Osotsi said.
“Some are even unable to pay salaries. And those that are able to pay are incurring huge interests’ charges because of overdrafts they get from commercial banks.”
Governors have often lamented about the delays, saying they were affecting crucial services in the devolved units.
“This unwarranted delay has jeopardised the operations of the counties, rendered the counties unable to pay salaries, suppliers or continue to offer essential services to citizens,” Council of Governors chairperson Anne Waiguru said in a recent letter to Treasury Cabinet Secretary Njunguna Ndung'u.
“The purpose of this letter is therefore to request your office to urgently disburse the outstanding balance of equitable share to county governments.”
Senate Minority Whip Ledama Olekina said that county officials have been forced to camp at the Treasury, seeking appointment with top ministry officials.
“We have realised that a lot of counties are lamenting that they do not receive money from the Treasury, most of them even stay at the Treasury up to 3pm trying to seek an appointment,” he said.
The committee said they will want the PS to explain claims that the Treasury has been diverting funds its requests the Controller of Budget for disbursement to the counties.
“One other mischief that we need to cure is diversion of money from the exchequer. If Treasury requests money, they say they are going to pay counties but when they receive the money, they end up paying other things which are not in the budget,” the Narok senator said.
Kiptoo will also explain the challenges that have been associated with the integrated financial management.
Counties have complained that the Integrated Financial Management Information System challenges, including downtime, were affecting financial transactions, thus affecting normal operations of the counties.
The CS will also be put to task over the controversial draft Privatisation Bill that seeks to give the Treasury free hand to sell state corporations.
The Bill which was on Tuesday endorsed by the Cabinet, allows Treasury to privatise state corporation without seeking the nod of Parliament.
“We are seeking clarification noting that some of the entities set for privatisation; some of our counties have a stake in those entities,” Osotsi said.
