- Development has continued to suffer as county governments splurge close to 60 percent of their budgets on payment of staff salaries and wages in six months
- The development comes even as it emerged that 21 county governments spent less than 10 percent of their revenue on development over the period between July 1 and October 31, 2023
Image: EZEKIEL AMING'A
Development has continued to suffer as county governments splurge close to 60 per cent of their budgets on salaries in six months.
The development comes even as it emerged that 21 county governments spent less than 10 per cent of their revenue on development over the period between July 1 and October 31, 2023.
The revelations are in the latest budget implementation review report for the first half of the 2023-24 financial year.
It was released by Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakang’o on Thursday.
The report says Kisii, Nairobi, Machakos, West Pokot and Nyandarua spent the least on development at 2.9 per cent, 3.3 per cent, 3.5 per cent, 8.7 per cent and 7.0 percent respectively.
“The development expenditure during the period under review amounted to Sh24.81 billion translating to an absorption rate of 12.2 per cent of the financial year 2023-24 development budget of Sh203.11 billion,” the report says.
Others are Nyeri at 6.4 per cent, Samburu 5.2 per cent, Taita Taveta 4.4 per cent, Makueni 7.1 per cent, Meru 9.8 per cent and Kericho 7.6 per cent.
Baringo spent 5.8 per cent, Lamu 7.5 per cent, Isiolo 9.7 per cent and Kajiado 8.7 per cent.
Meanwhile Narok, Bomet, Uasin Gishu, Laikipia and Marsabit counties spent the highest on development at 52.4 per cent, 27.1 per cent, 27.0 per cent, 22.5 per cent and 21.7 per cent respectively.
As development hurt in most counties, the report exposes the worsening wage bill in the devolved unit.
The county governments spent Sh98.13 billion or 58 per cent of their approved budgets on personnel emoluments – salaries, wages and allowances.
“This expenditure increased from Sh94.78 billion incurred in a similar period in financial year 2022-23,” the report states, exposing the wage bill burden in the counties.
This compared to Sh24.81 billion spent on development over the period.
In what could expose the rot in the county payroll, the report shows that Sh7.06 billion of the payrolls was processed manually and outside the government payroll system which accounts for seven per cent of the total wage bills.
“This contradicts the Government policy that requires salaries to be processed through the IPPD system. The manual payroll is prone to abuse and may lead to the loss of public funds, where there is lack of proper controls,” Nyakang’o said.
According to the report, Nairobi spent the highest amount of their budgets on personnel emoluments.
It spent Sh7.49 billion of Sh10.81 billion on salaries and wages.
Nakuru spent Sh3.63 billion on wages and salaries out of a total budget of Sh7.04 billion.
Other counties that spent high amounts of their budgets on salaries and wages are Machakos (Sh3.3 billion), Turkana (Sh3.03 billion), Kitui (Sh2.96 billion), Baringo (Sh3.83 billion) and Kiambu (Sh3.68 billion).
“The Control of Budget recommends that county governments should ensure that expenditure on personnel emoluments is contained at sustainable levels and in compliance with Regulation 25 (1) (b) of the Public Finance Management (County Governments) Regulations, 2015,” the report states.
“Further, the County Public Service Boards are advised to fast-track the acquisition of Unified Personnel Numbers for their staff and ensure payroll is processed through the prescribed government system,” it adds.