Mailu who insisted that the funds have been transferred to the respective counties made the decision following a demand by the Council of Governors that it be made public/FILE
NAIROBI, Kenya, May 16 – Health Cabinet Secretary Cleopa Mailu will on Wednesday publish the schedule of funds allocated to county governments to pay doctors and nurses allowances for the 100 days they were on strike.
Mailu who insisted that the funds have been transferred to the respective counties made the decision following a demand by the Council of Governors that it be made public.
The Governors also want to know the dates and actual amounts disbursed to the counties.
They stated that the allocation is yet to be disbursed to any county government since the Senate has not resumed its sessions to approve the allocations.
They explained that what was budgeted for the Nurses, Clinical officers and other Health workers in the counties as allowances amounted to Sh1.6 billion with Doctors getting Sh1.5 billion.
The Governors also demanded to know under what provisions of the law did the Ministry purport to disburse the monies to the County Governments without the Senate’s approval.
The National Treasury authorised the Ministry of Health to incur expenses worth 1.69 billion to be disbursed to Counties to cater for the negotiated health workers and clinical officers’ allowances for the first phase of implementation with effect from January 1, 2017.
In order for this allocation to be disbursed to counties, the supplementary allocation must be approved by the Senate through an amendment to the County Allocation of Revenue Act of 2016.
Currently, these funds cannot be disbursed to counties until the Senate meets to make these very important amendments.
Doctors in various counties had threatened to boycott work while accusing the government of failing to implement the return-to-work formula that ended their strike.
This is even as the doctors’ union has concluded an audit on which counties have paid the doctors who did not work in the 100-day strike.
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