KRA blamed for shortfall in county funds allocation

Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has come under fire from the Controller of Budget for alleged poor performance.

Controller of Budget Agnes Odhiambo, in the County Governments Budget Implementation Review Report, said only Sh158.8 billion was disbursed to counties as equitable share against an intended Sh196.13 billion in the 2015/2016 financial year due to under-performance by the tax collection body.

“The national government has attributed failure to fully disburse the equitable share for the period to under-performance in revenue collection by the Kenya Revenue Authority,” says Ms Odhiambo in the report.

She says the equitable share of revenue raised in the last financial year constituted only 81 per cent of funds disbursed to counties, thus stalling county development projects.

Nairobi City County received the highest allocation of Sh8.8 billion against an expected Sh9.81 billion disbursement.

LEAST ALLOCATION

Turkana County came in second with an allocation of Sh6.13 billion against an expected 7.9 billion, followed by Mandera County with an allocation of Sh5.24 billion against an expected Sh6.76 billion.

Kakamega County came in fourth with an allocation of Sh5.21 billion against an expected Sh6.7 billion disbursement. Conversely, Lamu County received the least allocation at Sh1.2 billion against an expected disbursement of Sh1.5 billion.

It was followed by Elgeyo Mrakwet with an allocation of Sh1.91 billion against an expected Sh2.96 billion, while Laikipia came in third with an allocation of Sh2.02 billion compared to an expected Sh2.6 billion, ahead of Isiolo County that received Sh2.06 billion against an expected Sh2.3 billion.

A total of Sh161 billion was approved for transfer to the 47 County Revenue Funds by the Controller of Budget.

The National Government gave conditional allocations amounting to Sh2.2 billion to level five hospitals, while DANIDA donated Sh518.6 billion to supplement the operations of county health facilities in addition to the Sh158 billion equitable share.

Mombasa County received the highest allocation at Sh171 million.