Council of Governors (CoG) Chairperson Wycliffe Oparanya (pictured) on Wednesday through a letter to the Treasury said that failure to release the funds has hindered them from carrying out development projects and also offsetting verified pending bills/FILE – COURTESY
NAIROBI, Kenya, Jun 26 – Counties are now calling on the National Treasury to urgently release funds amounting to Sh65 billion owed to them for the 2018/2019 financial year, ending June 30.
Council of Governors (CoG) Chairperson Wycliffe Oparanya on Wednesday through a letter to the Treasury said that failure to release the funds has hindered them from carrying out development projects and also offsetting verified pending bills.
“It’s unfortunate that only five days to the end of the current financial year, and no single disbursement has been made to any county government, the purpose of this letter is to request for urgent release of the pending disbursement to counties to enable offsetting key commitments,” he stated.
According to CoG, counties are unable to undertake development commitments amounting to Sh33 billion, verified pending bills of Sh42 billion, personal emoluments for three months amounting to Sh37.1 billion and operations and maintenance costs of Sh15.3 billion.
The promise to release the Sh65 billion to counties by end of June was made by Deputy President William Ruto, when he met representatives of the CoG led by Oparanya and National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich.
Speaking at his Karen office last week on Tuesday, Ruto said Treasury was on the final process of releasing the cash.
However, he said suppliers whose payments have been flagged as ineligible by the Auditor General will have their issues heard and addressed by a special appeal committee in every county.
The Deputy President said the directive was in tandem with President Uhuru Kenyatta’s directive on Madaraka Day that called for national and county governments to honour their obligations before the end of June.
The letter by Oparanya come at a time when talks between the National Assembly and the Senate for shareable revenues have collapsed in what could result into stalling of operations in counties.
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