Nairobi County collected the highest amount of revenue for the 2017/2018 financial year. This is contained in the Annual County Governments Budget Implementation Review Report for the 2017-2018 financial year prepared by the controller of Budget, Mrs. Agnes Odhiambo. In the report, ‘the Nairobi City County generated the highest amount of own source revenue at KShs. 10.11 billion, followed by Mombasa and Nakuru at KShs. 3.16 billion and KShs. 2.28 billion respectively. Counties that generated the lowest amount were Lamu, Tana River and Mandera at KShs. 55.29 million, KShs. 56.63 million and 61.82 million respectively.’
“Analysis of own source of revenue as a proportion of the annual revenue target indicates that three counties namely: Tana River, Migori and Kwale exceeded their targets at 188.8 per cent, 111.1 per cent and 100.5 per cent respectively. Conversely, the counties that recorded the lowest proportion of own source revenue against annual targets were Garissa at 34.7 per cent, Kisii at 27 per cent and Mandera at 26.8 per cent,” Odhiambo says, in the report.
The controller of budget authorized the release of KShs. 306.2 billion from the consolidated fund to the counties for operations during the period under review. Of the 47 counties, Nairobi got the lion share at KShs. 21.13 billion followed by Kiambu county which got KShs. 11.92 billion while, Kakamega got 10.97 billion to rank at position three. ‘The Counties that received the least amounts were: Tharaka Nithi at KShs. 3.78 billion, Isiolo at KShs. 3.76 billion and Lamu at KShs. 2.36 billion.’ The report shows that Nairobi County, Mandera County, Murang’a County and Laikipia County top in the list of counties that spent more than the total funds authorized for withdrawal by the Controller of Budget.
On development, Mandera county recorded the highest expenditure on development activities at KShs. 3.89 billion, followed by Kakamega and Kitui counties at KShs. 3.88 billion and KShs. 3.28 billion respectively. The report ranks Lamu, Vihiga and Taita Taveta counties as counties with the lowest development expenditure at Kshs. 361.27 million, Kshs. 297.47 million and 206.45 million respectively.
Nairobi county again topped in the list of counties that spent the highest amount of revenue on recurrent expenditures (like rents, salaries and bills) at Kshs. 22.36 billion followed by Kiambu and Nakuru Counties at 8.93 billion and KShs. 7.98 billion respectively. ‘The counties with the lowest expenditure on recurrent activities were: Tana River at Kshs. 2.26 billion, Isiolo at Kshs. 2.25 billion and Lamu at Kshs. 1.7 billion respectively.
The Members of County Assemblies, MCAs, received lesser sitting allowances against the approved budget allocation. The report indicates that: “The county Assemblies spent Kshs. 1.46 billion on MCAs sitting allowances against the approved budget allocation of Kshs. 2.34 billion. On average, four County Assemblies reported higher expenditure on MCAs’ sitting allowances than the monthly ceiling recommended by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission, SRC, of Kshs. 80,000. These were: Kakmega at Kshs. 124,800, Marsabit at Kshs. 120,968, Tana River at Kshs. 93,599 and Taita Taveta at Kshs. 80,760.”
The office of the Controller of Budget now says that it has identified some challenges that affected budget implementation during the financial year under review. “These challenges included: high expenditure on personal emoluments (Salaries), delay in submission of financial reports by county treasuries to the Controller of Budget, under performance of own source revenue collection, high pending bills and delay in establishment of internal audit committees,” Mrs. Odhiambo concludes.
