Kenya should use funds prudently

The Controller of Budget's report on county finances for the financial year 2015/2016 is out. As in previous reports, there appears to be little improvement, if any, in the management of funds which, instead of going primarily to finance development projects, have been used on recurrent expenditure. There is more money being spent on paying staff salaries and allowances than initiating development programmes.

This raises a fundamental issue; whether counties overemployed staff, some of who are duplicating their work or whether it is a clear case of mismanagement of public resources. In many counties, members of county assemblies have spent huge sums of money on sitting and travelling allowances, with nothing tangible to show for it.

It is worrying that out of the total budget of Sh183 billion allocated to the counties, the Controller of Budget's report indicates only Sh55 billion was spent on development programmes. Recurrent expenditure consumed Sh128 billion. This is wrong because service provision in counties remains a challenge.

Kwale, Tana River and Turkana counties spent more than 50 per cent of their allocations on development as opposed to Nyeri where, for every Sh100 spent, only Sh7 was used for development. Prudent management of public finances is therefore necessary to develop counties to desired levels of self-sufficiency.