Counties need skilled staff to manage funds

The Division of Revenue Bill 2015 has been approved by the National Assembly and forwarded to the Senate. The Bill proposes allocation of Sh258 billion to county governments for the next financial year. Counties will also receive additional allocations of Sh25 billion from the National Government for, among others, free maternal health, leasing of medical equipment, and for Level 5 hospitals. This will be the third budget and financial year for the County Governments.

The allocation of funds to counties is not sufficient to effectively carry out their functions and responsibilities. The Senate and the National Government have a constitutional, legal and moral obligation to build the capacities of county governments, particularly County Assemblies, who ultimately are responsible for allocating of funds for county functions through the approval of the budget and monitoring the use of these funds.

By now, Senate in coordination with the National Treasury and the National Assembly, should have drafted and circulated to all the counties a model County Financial Bill, a County Financial Management Template and Monitoring Guidelines. Additionally, they should have generated budgets and financial management training curricula and annual refresher programs for county governments.

Treasury and financial management are skills and competencies that take years to learn and master. Members of County Assemblies, and County Executive Committees, who may not have the relevant educational and professional training, should be guided and regularly trained on the ABCs of their budget and financial management functions.

Had this been done, both for County Executive Committees that prepare the budget and appropriate the funds, and for County Assembly members who approve the budget and allocate and monitor the use of funds, many of the financial management problems plaguing counties, for example Makueni, would have been resolved or managed.

For example, few know that under Article 225 of the Constitution the National Treasury has no legal authority or power to withhold funds from a county for more than 60 days. Furthermore, the National Treasury must seek the backdated approval of Parliament within 30 days of making any decision to withhold funds from a county government. Only the National Assembly and Senate have the Constitutional power and Authority to authorise any request or report from the National Treasury to withhold funds from the county.
It is also likely that many county governments do not know that before funds are withheld from them for more than 60 days, they have a right to be heard before the National Assembly and the Senate.

In many cases the National Treasury has withheld funds from county governments on this and other pretext without seeking the approval of both the National Assembly and the Senate, and without asking the county governments to defend themselves against any proposed withholding of funds beyond 60 days.

Recognising that sub-national governments are in their infancy, and require financial, legislative and human resources capacity support, the Constitution and the law expressly provide that no function should be devolved to any county government unless all the necessary resources are available to that county to ably perform those functions. This requirement of the Constitution has routinely been ignored by the National Government. The resulting failures are wrongly blamed on county governments that did not in the first place have the financial, legislative and human resources capacity to undertake the functions prematurely handed over to them.

The failure of county governments in financial management and service delivery belongs primarily at the doorstep of the Senate, by extension to the National Government and from a distance, the National Assembly.
As the Senate debates the Division of Revenue Bill, it should reflect on how they can formulate a budget and financial management model, guidelines and training curricula for the sub-National Governments for the remaining financial years.