County governments spent over half of their budgets on non-priority items such as trips, gifts, wages and legal fees.

A new report by the Controller of Budget (COB) Dr. Margaret Nyakang’o shows that a majority of the counties spent their resources on domestic and foreign travel allowance, committee sitting allowances for Members of the County Assemblies, garbage collection, legal fees, purchase of motor vehicles, payment of membership fees and subscriptions, printing, advertising bank charges, fuel, constituency office expenses, advertising and publicity bank charges, fuel, constituency office expenses, advertising and publicity.

The other expenses include monies spent on board meetings, seminars and conferences as well as attending conferences overseas to train on water harvesting tips and information supplies.

The report shows that on MCA Sitting Allowance, County Assemblies spent Sh290.23 million on sitting allowances against an approved budget allocation of Sh1.88 billion during the reporting period.

This expenditure translates to 15 per cent of the approved MCAs sitting allowance budget, a decrease from 16 per cent in the first quarter of FY 2023/24 when Sh312.98 million was spent.

Sitting allowances
Only the County Assemblies of Garissa, Nyamira and Trans Nzoia counties did not report any expenditure on MCAs’ sitting allowances during the period under review.

Reads the report: “During the period, the Controller of Budget identified some challenges that hindered effective budget execution. These challenges included delays in submission of County Appropriation Acts, Budget Books and Governors Warrants for FY 2024/25 to OCoB.”

The report shows that Baringo county spent Sh112.5 million on Executive Car Scheme Fund yet it did not budget for Youth and Women Fund and older persons and Persons with serving Disability Fund.

Reads the report: “Expenditure on domestic travel amounted to Sh18.11 million, comprising Sh12.83 million spent by the County Assembly and Sh5.28 million by the County Executive.”

In Hillary Barchok’s Bomet, the report shows that the county spent Sh10.5 million on garbage collection while expenditure on domestic travel amounted to Sh18.51 million comprising Sh11.84 million spent by the County Assembly and Sh6.66 million by the Executive.

In Bungoma county, governed by Ken Lusaka, the report shows that the county spent Sh28.89 million on garbage collection. The Assembly spent Sh9.95 million on committee sitting allowances for the 63 MCAs against the annual budget allocation of Sh28.18 million.