A report released by the Controller of Budget Agnes Odhiambo reveals that counties spent Sh132.8 billion on recurrent expenditure during the last financial year - 2013/2014.
The amount translates to 78.4 per cent of total expenditure for the financial year.
The Annual Budget Implementation Report, 2014, indicates that the actual expenditure for the period stood at Sh144.8 billion, out of which only Sh35.5 billion was used on development while the rest was recurrent expenditure.
Counties spent Sh132.8 billion on recurrent expenditure with some exceeding their quota. The money was mainly spent on personnel emoluments (Sh77.4billion), operations and maintenance (Sh51.7 billion), debt repayment and pending bills (Sh3.7 billion).
Controller of Budget Agnes Odhiambo said the money spent translates to 82.7 per cent of the total recurrent budgets for the counties in the financial year.
According to a report findings, Nairobi County recorded Sh10 billion, Kiambu Sh3.7 billion and Mombasa stood at Sh3.2 billion. The lowest spenders were Nyamira (Sh305.5 million), Lamu (Sh384.1 million) and Tana River (Sh391.8 million.
Nairobi, Nakuru and Kiambu counties incurred the highest recurrent expenditure while Tana River and Lamu recorded the lowest figures.
However, Odhiambo said Kisumu and Mombasa were among the counties that attained highest expenditure on recurrent activities as a proportion of their total expenditure.
“Meru County recorded the highest absorption of current expenditure at 115.9 per cent of the annual recurrent budget followed by Nyeri and Tharaka Nithi and Muranga counties,” she stated in the report.
Bomet, Turkana and Wajir had the lowest proportion of recurrent expenditure while Lamu, Turkana and Garissa recorded the lowest absorption rate of the recurrent budget allocation during that period.
On operations and maintenance, the counties spent Sh51.7 billion with Nairobi being the highest spender.
It spent Sh2.9 billion followed by Nakuru (Sh2.4 billion) and Narok (Sh2 billion) respectively. Tana River, Nyamira and Marsabit counties had the least (below 70 per cent) proportion of personnel emoluments of the total expenditure. She pointed out that of the money spent on operations and maintenance, most of it was used to purchase vehicles and on domestic and foreign travel.
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