Unpaid July salaries demoralising county workers

 

The negative effects of the bicameral Parliament failing to agree expeditiously on allocation of funds to county governments are being felt as counties are unable to pay workers their July salaries.

Shortly before Parliament went on its last recess, there was disagreement with the Senate on the amount of money that should be allocated to counties in the 2017/2018 financial year.

The collapse of the Division of Revenue Bill 2017 over this disagreement compelled the National Assembly’s Budget and Appropriation Committee to make amendments to the overall amount of money due to counties, later capped at Sh341 billion.

But even after the amount was finally settled upon, it has emerged the Treasury is yet to disburse the funds to counties. The money, as required by law, has not yet been uploaded on the Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS) to enable respective counties to access it to facilitate operations. This came to light after the Council of Governors Finance Committee Chairman, who is also Kakamega County Governor, Wycliffe Oparanya, raised the alarm.

It seems at the moment that most Government functionaries’ attention is focused on campaigns for the August 8 General Election, but that is no good reason for forcing service provision to grind to a halt within counties.

It is also insensitive to expect workers to give their best when they are not getting their pay in time, especially during these hard economic times.