MCAs argue amendments would lead to huge deficit in budget

Nairobi County Governor Mike Mbuvi Sonko adressing Nairobi County Assembly during the official opening on 29th September 2017. PHOTO:WILBERFORCE OKWIRI

NAIROBI, KENYA: A rift is brewing at the county assembly over Governor Mike Sonko’s decision to scrap licence fees for small-scale traders.

During his address at the opening of the second county assembly, the governor expressed his intention to amend the Public Finance Act to pave the way for cutting operational costs for small-scale traders among other things.

The suggestion was however met with resistance from some of the MCAs who described the move as more political than practical.

Michael Ogada, Embakasi MCA and former chairman of the Finance committee, argued that the proposed amendments would lead to a huge deficit in the budget, making it tricky for the county to meet its financial obligations.

Supplement budget

“Revenue collection will take a dip if the amendments are approved and unless the governor finds a way to supplement the budget then the county will suffer financially,” said Mr Ogada.

For the amendments to work, he said, the county government needed to utilise its good rapport with the national government now that Sonko was at the helm.

“The only option would be for Sonko to work with the national government so that the county government is payed the owed Sh60 billion to supplement the budget,” he added. The ward rep also took issue with the recent claims by the governor that the county had seen a surge in the amounts of cash collections - from just below Sh200 million to Sh467 million in the first two weeks of September 2017.

Ogada said it was too early to tell whether there was really an increase of revenue.

Seasonal ticket

“Seasonal ticket payments were being made at the beginning of the month so we have to wait until the middle of the month to prove any increase.”

Kariobangi South MCA and former Public Accounts Committee chairman Robert Mbatia expressed support for the amendments, citing an increase in revenue.

Mr Mbatia said by lowering and expanding the tax bracket, the county would collect more revenue. This was however on condition that all payments were made through the cashless payment systems in order to avert graft.

“We were not collecting enough money because the fees were too high but if reduced, I am confident there will be a surge because more people will be able to pay,” he said.

The ward rep also adopted the proposal that the county government should drops all cases against the national government for better service delivery.

He said former governor Evans Kidero’s regime spent a lot of money on litigation that could have been used for service delivery.