Mombasa County Assembly has lined up 10 crucial Bills some of which are a game changer for a county whose chiefs have cried foul of meagre allocations from the Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA).
However, the problem is the assembly is stuck with the Bills at the committee levels due to lack of funds to finance public participation forums before enactment as required by the new Constitution.
The Bills are the Mombasa County Port Authority Bill, County Ferries and Harbours Bill, County Corporations Bill, County Public Accounts Bill, County Medical Facilities and Services Bill, County Roads Bill and County Carriage of Foods Bill.
Others are County Public Nuisance Bill, Mombasa Port Health Bill and Mombasa Wholesale Market Control and Licensing.
Plans derailed
The county government seeks to enact the Mombasa County Port Authority Bill 2014 and the County Ferries and Harbours Bill 2014 to raise millions of shillings in revenue from the shipping industry but the plans may take longer following the cash crisis.
The dilemma emerged when CRA fixed the ceiling of the county assembly budget at Sh341 million annually and trashed its Sh656 million. With a salary bill for the assembly staff amounting to Sh324 million annually, the cash crunch threatens to stall operations and sabotage the county government's agenda.
County speaker Thadius Rajwayi said CRA’s decision to put a ceiling to its budget has adversely affected the work of the assembly, adding they have petitioned the commission to review its decision.
“Budgets must contain items and costs. But we are surprised that our budget ceiling was arrived at without indicating items and costs. If nothing is done urgently, we may go without salaries from next month,” Rajwayi observed.
Rajwayi said the assembly was in negotiations with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to possibly secure additional funding for its operations.
Apart from funds for public participation, members of the county assembly lack money for induction courses and per diem, the speaker explained.
The Mombasa County Port Authority Bill seeks to establish a powerful body to oversee the collection of revenue transport and shipping which has been elusive since the era of the defunct Mombasa municipal council.
Former mayor and current Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala and his successors pushed for collection of one dollar per tonne of cargo passing through the port of Mombasa in vain.
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