?Treasury sitting on Sh80 billion owed to counties

Treasury CS Henry Rotich

The money Treasury owes counties has hit Sh80 billion.  

It has emerged that by February 26, Treasury had only disbursed Sh126 billion to counties, against the schedule of Sh205 billion approved by the Senate.  

This means that Treasury has only managed to give counties 42 per cent of their total allocation, four months into the end of the financial year. Counties are therefore expected to spend, more than Sh170 billion, or 58 per cent of their allocation, in just under four months.   

The Senate committee on Finance and Budget said it was concerned that despite the delays, there were variations among the counties, with some receiving nearly two times more than others.  

“We are concerned that the disbursement to the counties is far behind the schedule passed by the Senate,” committee chairperson Mohamed Maalim Mahamud said Tuesday.

Mr Mahamud said his committee had directed Treasury to shed light on why there was a variance in allocations to the counties.

For example, there are some counties that had only received about one third of their allocations, while others had been given two thirds of their portion.

Baringo County is among the counties that had received the least amounts by the end of last month, while Nairobi and Trans Nzoia had received 57 and 59 per cent of their share respectively.

The committee was supposed to meet Treasury CS Henry Rotich Tuesday, but he had other engagements with officials of the International Monetary Fund.