Cost of deputy governor's home slashed by Sh114m

Malindi MCAs slash deputy governor's residence millions. The move is expected to rub the executive the wrong way. [File, Standard]

The County Assembly has slashed the budget of procuring an official residence of the deputy governor from the estimated Sh214 million to Sh100 million.

According to the Budget and Appropriations Committee, the budget for the residence set by the executive was 'outrageous' and 'not a priority' expenditure.

During the submission of its reviewed report on the proposed budget estimates on Wednesday, the chairman of the committee Albert Kiraga told the assembly the executive focused on non-priority areas at the expense of development.

“During the public hearing for the budget, residents wanted the budget for the procurement of the deputy governor’s residence be done away with, but as a committee, we opted to reduce the amount to meet the national government's directive that governors and their deputies should have county houses,” said Mr Kiraga.

The move is expected to rub the executive the wrong way and is likely to evoke memories of 2013, when the county spent Sh140 million to purchase a house for Governor Amason Kingi.

The committee presented a scrutinised document, which was approved by the assembly, and is expected to be forwarded to Mr Kingi for approval.

In the report, the committee also reinstated funding for stalled projects that the executive had sidelined.

The 2018/2019 financial year budget will be Sh13.06 billion up from last year’s 11.99 billion. However, the county still faces hurdles as local revenue collection targets have never been met.

“A careful review of recent approved budget revenue estimates and end of period actual revenue, points to systematic overestimation of revenue, and this is despite the fact that forecast errors should be lower if the growth of any given revenue component is stable,” said Kiraga.

Local revenue collection target was pegged at Sh1.3 billion up from Sh929.66 million last year, and the committee recommended that the executive automates its system to increase revenue collection.

Recurrent expenditure was pegged at Sh8.1 billion, development Sh5.6 billion, ward development programme Sh875 million while cash transfers to the elderly, orphans and vulnerable children was set at Sh35 million.

The committee also approved the Ward Scholarship Fund (Sh350 million) and Mbegu Fund at Sh30 million while the Kenya Urban Support Programme was slashed from Sh330 million to Sh205 million.