Kitui County Governor Julius Malombe.
Residents of Kitui County are set for a financially gloomy Christmas and a prolonged cash crunch after Governor Julius Malombe and the county assembly failed to agree on how to spend the county's Sh14.8 billion budget.
The budget stalemate, which saw the governor refuse to assent to the County Appropriation Bill citing the assembly's decision to review the entire budget, will also affect county workers whose December salaries may be delayed as suppliers and contractors brace for delayed payments for their goods and services.
Worst hit are traders who are owed Sh1.4 billion by the county in outstanding bills for services rendered and projects undertaken in previous financial years. Their pay was planned for in this year's budget and cannot be paid until the impasse is resolved.
Dr Malombe argues that members of the County Assembly were wrong to largely mutilate his spending proposals in the supplementary budget they passed last week, in contravention of the law and in total disregard of suggestions made by Kitui residents during public participation on the county's annual development plan.
On the other hand, the MCAs, led by Budget Committee Chairperson Zacchaeus Syengo, admitted that they had amended the supplementary budget to align county spending with the needs of the people, especially on key priorities in the roads, water and health sectors.
"We have a huge crisis in our county hospitals which need constant drug supplies and we never touched allocations to the health department. Our roads are in bad shape and that's why we reallocated funds from other less priority programmes to cater for road repairs," said Mr Syengo, defending the Assembly.
However, according to a detailed memorandum by Dr Malombe explaining his reasons for refusing to assent to the Bill, the bone of contention is a Sh100 million that the MCAs earmarked for their own offices, which was not included in the supplementary budget.
The Kitui County Assembly is constructing a seven-storey office block to house the 60 elected and nominated MCAs in Kitui town for Sh190 million.
Both the executive and the assembly had initially agreed to implement the project in phases, with the first phase costing Sh90 million.
In the supplementary budget, the MCAs voted to take money from several county departments to reinstate the full allocation for their own office block project, triggering the stalemate.
Citing the powers vested in his office under Section 24 of the County Governments Act, Dr Malombe told the assembly that he had refused to assent to the Bill because there was no point in hoarding funds that weren't likely to be used, yet the multi-year project would still be allocated additional budgets in subsequent years.
"In terms of absorption, engineers have confirmed that the County Assembly can only absorb a maximum of Sh86.9 million in the current financial year. Allocating funds which cannot be absorbed in the fiscal year contravenes Article 201 (d) of the Constitution," reads the governor’s memorandum seen by Nation.Africa.
Dr Malombe said due to the shrinking fiscal space, it is not prudent to allocate funds to a project in a financial year that is unlikely to be spent and urged the MCAs to reconsider their decision.
The memorandum also lists five other concerns where key programmes were denied funding in the revised budget, including the Sh15 million county tree planting programme, Sh65 million for dust-free towns under urban development, Sh7.5 million for the purchase of surveillance equipment for county offices and Sh11 million for training bodaboda operators.
By law, the assembly must muster two-thirds or 40 members to reject the governor's memorandum, meaning Dr Malombe has the easier task of lobbying just 21 MCAs to overturn the initial supplementary budget amendments.
Some MCAs, led by Minority Leader Alex Nganga (Narc party), have already indicated that they will not oppose Dr Malombe's memorandum and agree that the Sh100 million for their offices can be reallocated for other purposes.
Mr Nganga and Mr Nicholas Mutemi (Kisasi Ward) said the contractor building the office block would not be able to spend the Sh86.9 million by June next year and that there's no need to cling on to the additional Sh100 million.
But opponents, mostly from the Wiper party, argue that they are under pressure from their constituents over the poor state of roads and health services and have acted to avoid a backlash from the people.
Mr Syengo said road allocation was a sensitive and emotive issue among elected MCAs and that was why a new vote line was created for the hiring and leasing of heavy equipment and allocated Sh60 million.
"The governor’s memorandum will be debated next week. It cannot be amended, therefore MCAs will vote to adopt or reject it in its entirety," said Mr Syengo.
For now, the stalemate continues as Kitui County cannot spend its revenue until the Sh14.8 billion is properly appropriated and every line in the total budget estimates is uploaded to the Controller of Budget at the National Treasury.
