Governors fault Treasury on county funds
By Samuel Kariuki and Rawlings, February 15, 2024
Governors have accused the National Treasury of conniving with Parliament to deny them an increase in funds allocated to the counties as equitable share from the national government during the 2024/25 financial year.
Bungoma governor Ken Lusaka said that currently, the Council of Governors (CoG) and the Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA) are embroiled in a tug-of-war over sharable revenue for the counties and are yet to reach an agreement.
“The push and pull between CoG and CRA on the increase of funds for equitable share is intense. We haven’t agreed. In fact, it is a stalemate. As CoG we want over Sh420 billion and the CRA is recommending over Sh300 billion and Treasury has also given a different figure,” Lusaka said when he was hosted at Milele FM’s breakfast show.
Division of revenue
The governor called on the agencies involved in the division of revenue to heed the advice of CRA noting that the commission makes recommendations based on thorough investigations into the current financial needs of the counties.
“CRA is the only agency that should make such recommendations based on defined indicators but nobody is listening to the commission. When CRA presents their recommendations to the National Treasury who have a different lower figure, the National Treasury will stick to their figures.
“When the matter goes to the National Assembly which oversights budget appropriations and government spending the National Treasury will obviously get backing and that’s how counties are denied their share of the cake,” he explained.
Emphasising that there needs to be one voice talking about allocations to the counties, Lusaka said that it was ironic for the government to claim the economy is growing yet it is not honouring its pledge to the devolved units.