MCAs ask Governor Sonko to slash budget

Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko at a past function. [File, Standard]

The Nairobi County Assembly wants Governor Mike Sonko to slash the proposed 2018/2019 budget by Sh2 billion.

The budget pronouncement is scheduled for tomorrow after being pushed forward from last week to allow its fine-tuning.

The county assembly's budget and appropriation committee termed the proposed Sh34 billion budget 'unrealistic' and called for a review.

The committee chairman, Robert Mbatia, said the budget was over-ambitious as the executive needed to balance recurrent expenditure with development estimates.

“The executive feels that the budget should be fully funded at Sh34 billion, but we are still negotiating. We feel that they are not able to fund the budget fully and therefore need to revise it,” stated Mr Mbatia.

He added that if the proposed budget was approved there would be a Sh7 billion deficit.

The budget committee vice chairman, Patrick Karani, observed that despite increased revenue collection, more money was needed to finance the budget.

“The county performed well in collection of revenue, most notably in the third quarter, but we still need to put in place a realistic budget to ensure service delivery,” said Mr Karani.

He noted that Sh8.2 billion was collected in local revenue against a target of Sh17 billion, a few days to the end of the 2017/18 financial year.

The county finance executive, Charles Kerich, said the annual revenue collection stood at Sh9 billion and another Sh16.5 billion was expected from the National Treasury.