Governors have warned of a total shutdown of services if delayed disbursement of sharable revenue subsists beyond November.
In a statement on Monday, Council of Governors chairperson Ahmed Abdullahi said counties are yet to receive their equitable allocation more than five months into the 2024-25 financial year.
This, he said, is despite the County Allocation of Revenue Bill having already been passed by both houses of Parliament.
“We therefore call upon the Senate to expeditiously pass the County Allocation of Revenue Act to resolve this delay. Additionally, we demand that the National Treasury immediately releases the funds owed to counties, failure to which, county governments will have no choice but to shut down operations completely.”
Abdullahi said that as a stopgap measure, counties have been relying on 50 per cent revenue share from the national government because the County Allocation of Revenue Act is yet to be assented to.
He, however, pointed out that this is a temporary measure that won’t be sustainable in the long run.
“The National Treasury is yet to disburse Sh63.6 billion for October and November, 2024 allocations. However, by December 2024, the 50 per cent will have been exhausted which means counties will not receive any disbursement from January 2025,” Abdullahi said.
His statement came after the Council of Governors held an Extra Ordinary meeting to deliberate on the issues.
During the meeting, the governors also took issue with delays by the Controller of Budget to approve requisitions for the withdrawal of the 50 per cent funds.
“This is unacceptable to an institution that is supposed to be facilitative. We call upon the Controller of Budget to stop being a bottleneck to this process and ensure counties access their funds in a timely manner.”
Meanwhile, the National Treasury released a summary of total revenue disbursed to counties since June 2024 amounting to over Sh158 billion.
The data shows that Sh30,833,969,281 was released on July 26 for the month of June.
Treasury said on September 24, it disbursed another Sh32,761,092,365 as July allocation and a further Sh30,833,969,289 was released on October 17 as August share.
Another Sh32,761,092,366 was dispatched on November 14, this being allocation for September.
Treasury adds that another tranche of Sh30,833,969,289 is in the process of being transmitted to counties for the month of October.
However,
governors have decried a shortage of funds saying they are bearing the brunt
following delayed release of their sharable revenue as the national government
on the other hand enjoy their share after the National Assembly passed the
Supplementary Appropriations Act, 2024.
Abdullahi said this development is an affront to Devolution and an overt attempt to weaken and undermine the devolved governments.
If anything, the CoG boss pointed out that the Supplementary Appropriations Act, 2024, based on the Division of Revenue Amendment Bill is un-procedural for two reasons.
One, the Supplementary Appropriations Act, 2024 is not based on the Division of Revenue Act, 2024.
“The Act is based on figures contained in a Bill that is currently before the mediation committee of Parliament,” he said.
Secondly, Abdullahi observed that the passage of the Supplementary Appropriations Act, 2024 goes against a Supreme Court Advisory, which stipulated that Parliament cannot pass an appropriation Bill before finalisation of the Division of Revenue Bill.
Deliberations over the Division of Revenue Bill are still ongoing in Parliament where the Senate has retained sharable revenue to counties at Sh400.117 billion, but the National Assembly wants the amount slashed by Sh20 billion.
Governors have warned that any reduction to County Equitable Share will negatively affect service delivery and grind the counties to a halt.
They argued that the Sh400.117 billion was arrived at based on historical audited accounts.
“The council has thus resolved to take precipitate action if the said impasse continues to subsist,” Abdulahi said.
