The National Government and County Governments have used an all-time low budget allocation of development projects for the last 9 months.
This is according to the Third Quarter Budget Expenditure Report released by the Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakang’o that showed both governments prioritized paying salaries and other recurrent expenditures over development projects.
According to the Controller of Budget, of the Ksh.2.1 trillion spent by the national government in the last nine months, only Ksh.259 billion was spent on development representing 17% of the expenditure.
Counties were worse off spending only 12.4% of the Ksh.239.67 billion released to them in the last 9 months which equates to only Ksh.29.73 billion.
The biggest chunk of the allocation, Ksh.135.85 billion (56.7 per cent), has been channelled to the payment of salaries and Ksh.74.09 billion (30.9 per cent) was used on operations and maintenance.
Speaking during the launch of the report, Nyakang’o was however quick to exonerate Governors from blame on the low spending on development and instead blamed it on shrinking revenue.
“We cannot blame anyone for low absorption because we have not given them enough resources,” she said.
“When revenues are limited, you would rather go for the most urgent and here we are talking about salaries. When cash flows are limited, development suffers,” Nyakang’o added.
According to Nyakango, the underutilization of development vote has been worsened by the underperformance of own revenue collection by counties.
“We have an issue with the own-source revenue, they (counties) are barely scratching the surface,” Nyakang’o said.
The report singled out 22 counties for failing to meet half of their own set revenue targets.
They include Kwale, Embu, Kisumu, Kakamega, Taita-Taveta, Tharaka-Nithi, Busia, Nairobi City, Garissa, Tana River, Nandi and Mandera counties.
Others are Wajir, Makueni, Homa Bay, Kisii, Kajiado, Nakuru, Murang’a, Kericho, Vihiga, and Nyamira counties.
