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The Council of Governors (CoG) has maintained their position on the division of revenue between the National Government and the devolved units be retained at Sh450 billion.

This is after a stalemate bringing together the members of taskforce team drawn from the Commission of Revenue Allocation (CRA), the National Treasury and CoG.

During the 22nd Ordinary Session of Intergovernmental Budget and Economic Council held on last month, it was resolved the matter on division on revenue allocation be referred to a task team.

However, the team stood their ground with the National Treasury proposing counties should be allocated Sh391 billion, CRA proposed Sh398.14 billion while the Governors insisted that they should receive Sh439.5 billion as equitable share to counties and Sh10.52 billion as Road Maintenance Levy Fund.

This means the gap between the proposal by the National Treasury and that of the county chiefs is Sh59 billion. “In view of the foregoing and upon careful consideration of the matter at hand, the Council hereby declares a stalemate on the discussions around vertical sharing of revenue. In this regard, we urge that our proposal of Sh450 billion to counties is adopted,” said CoG chair Anne Waiguru (Kirinyaga).

She went on: “We however note with concern, that after lengthy discussions and analysis of the proposed recommendations by the task team, the three parties retained divergent positions on their proposed figures for shareable revenue.”

The county chiefs argued that they need Sh450 billion so that the devolved units are cushioned from the rising cost of inflation across various devolved sectors, the rising Operations and Maintenance cost and the need for a commensurate adjustment for revenue growth.

In addition, the governors argued that the Sh450 billion allocation will factor in emerging items that will occasion additional expenditure by counties such as the new mandatory National Social Security Fund, Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF) and Housing Levy contributions. “

Our proposal is buttressed by provision of an allocation towards County employees’ annual salary incremental cost and the need to ensure County Governments are cushioned from the rising cost of inflation across various devolved sectors,” said Waiguru in a statement sent to newsrooms yesterday evening.