It has almost become an annual ritual for the Controller of Budget to mourn the failure by governors to allocate adequate resources towards development in their respective areas of jurisdictions.

Since the onset of devolution about thirteen years ago, office of the Controller of Budget has consistently accused governors of violating the law that requires that a minimum of 30 per cent of county budget be allocated to development expenditure.

The current release by Margaret Nyakang’o on Tuesday projects a damning picture of devolved units, with revelations that while no county met the legal threshold to commit at least 30 per cent of the resources to the development budget, ten governors completely failed to spend a single coin on development.

Instead, the ten counties spent all the money released to them on paying salaries and other recurrent expenditure at the expense of development projects.

In other words, tax payers and the electorate in the said counties continued to be starved of development activities by county chiefs who prioritised resources and energies on payment of salaries, allowances, travel and other operational activities.

Ludicrously, the report says the county chiefs and Assembly Speakers spent most of the allocated resources on locust emergencies that cannot be clearly accounted for and renovation of officers’ residences.

Though governors have not denied this failure, they have always blamed their inability to invest in development projects on irregular disbursement of funds by the National Treasury.

Clearly, Treasury’s failure to comply with the disbursement schedule has affected the timely implementation of counties’ development programmes.

Treasury’s delays and inadequate allocation of funds to devolved units have obviously stood out as the biggest threats to devolution.

Some county governments have been in the spotlight for misappropriating funds while most cannot account for the money allocated.

Despite the prevailing challenges, devolved units have the means and the autonomy to address local needs, particularly development projects.