Why your governor’s expensive mansion should bother you

Debates on money allocated for building the governors’ and speakers’ official residences’ and other engagements of their offices, have dominated the public particpation forums , at the expense of other crucial matters.
The focus on the anticipated expenditures by the offices of the governor and the speaker was informed by the general suspicion that the top county officials always influence the budget-makers to exaggerate their allocations. While it was important to scrutinize the anticipated expenditure of the top offices, this should not distract attention from matters that affect the public directly.

Sh150m or Sh40m?

For example, it was prudent for the public to question why building a governor’s residence should be allocated Sh150 m in Homa Bay County, Sh100m in Nairobi, and Sh40m in Busia, but it should not appear as if that was the salient concern of the public in those areas.

Public participation in the county budget -making is a constitutional requirement, to ensure that priority needs are included and at appropriate costs. It was therefore important for the forums to help identify gaps in the budgets evenly, and not just for select institutions, believed to be the conduits of corruption.

Thorough scrutiny of the budget in the forums would help in identifying gaps early enough before public funds were lost. Often these gaps were exposed by reports of the Auditor General and the Controller of Budget, by which time the funds would have been lost, in the sense of locking up the stable after the horse has bolted out. For example, the budget of the Bungoma County wheelbarrows that were valued at Sh109,000 each, instead of the Sh3,500 that was recommended through public participation. The Auditor General raised the flag one year later after money had been spent.

Therefore as the public forums focus on the budgets of the governor’s or speaker’s houses, entertainment, travel and tea, far much more could be lost in 100 other items.

Trade offs

It is also important to note that the budget makers would not vary the figures in the budgets if the public inputs unless they were based on facts. For example, if one opposes the budget for building a governor’s official residence, he or she must provide comparative costing of a similar building from elsewhere. The amount “saved’ can then be used elsewhere.

In Busia, Governor Sospeter Ojaamong’ has termed the Sh40 million set aside for the governor’s residence as a luxury. It would help if he presented what he deems a reasonable figure, because the residence is a constitutional requirement that would be built one way or the other using public funds.

Uninformed inputs are among the reasons why many people complain that their views were never included in the final budget.

Comparative costing is pragmatic. For example, the public should be convinced why a ready fruit processing factory in Makueni County costed Sh300m, yet should be budgeted at four times more, elsewhere. Or why an ECD classroom cost Sh450,000 in one county, and Sh1.2 million elsewhere. The public equally need to be convinced why the budget for holding cultural festivals need to be higher than that of training farmers to increase productivity or to prevent livestock deaths.

What really matters

Despite the general overview of the budget, the public should focus on issues that affect it directly such as food security, shelter, health, skills, creation of job opportunities and improved incomes. In other words, the public needs to push for increased budgets for fertilizer, certified seeds, tractors, housing, health care, value addition to farm produce, equipping of technical and vocational trainings and education bursaries.

Civil Society Organisations should help reinforce the training of communities to make effective contributions in the budget making process, as a way to improve accountability and service delivery. According to European Institute of Public Participation, a “core component of genuine participation is the possibility of stakeholders changing their minds to come to a shared understanding of issues and solutions, instead of just exchanging views.”

Mr Olale is a writer, with interests in public and social affairs. [email protected]