Governor appeal to Senate and controller of budget
Githinji Mwangi
Kirinyaga county governor Ann Mumbi Waiguru now wants Controller of budget and Senate to intervene on budget stalemate with County assembly, saying that the assembly alterations of the budget could drive county operations to a halt.
According to the governor county operations are slowly grounding to a standstill following a acrimonious differences with assembly.
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The hapless county boss noted that the executive presented the FY 2020/2021 proposed budget to the County Assembly for approval but instead of approving the budget, the assembly submitted a completely new
budget with a variation of over 30% per vote.
On a press release sent by her communication office,the embatled governor pointed that the MCAs went against the requirement of Regulation 37(1) of the Public Finance (County Government) regulations 2015 which limits the assembly variations to 1% of the ceilings.
The combative county boss who is increasingly running out of options on her showdown with assembly noted that apart from this being illegal, She won't approve the specific alterations done to the budget.
Though she has option of sending back the budget with her memorudum, the governor now is calling on Jubilee party to help her reign in on the assembly which according to her has run rogue.
She explained that the County Assembly moved over Ksh. 300 million meant to pay salaries for health workers to construction of their ward offices a move she said is completely unacceptable given that the health workers have put their lives on the line on fight against the covid-19 pandemic and noting that their actions would further put the lives of Kirinyaga residents in danger for not being able to access health services.
She added: "Assembly removed Ksh. 20 million meant for payment of casual workers’ wages who are critical in cleaning our environment and our health facilities especially during this time as we deal with
Covid-19 virus".
The county boss, who last week appointed a peace and reconciliation committee to reconcile with increasingly assertive assembly but later withdraw after her names were opposed by various stakeholders, said that the assembly removed Ksh. 14.6 million for fuel for ambulances, water bills and oxygen for our hospitals declaring the action as unacceptable since "it means paralyzing operations in our critical health sector".
Ms Waiguru who have gone under since she was saved by Senate over her impeachment said that Kirinyaga is one of the counties under the Presidential program on coffee revitalization.
The county was required to raise Ksh. 100m matching funds as part of the programme of which only Ksh. 50m was initially allocated to enable us participate.
She said "the removal of Ksh. 50 million allocated for conditional matching
funds will mean that about 68,000 coffee farmers from Kirinyaga will not benefit from the program which includes access to Cherry Advance Revolving Fund.
She also noted that the Assembly removed Ksh.184 million allocated as conditional matching funds for donor funded programs under Health, Agriculture and Education.
"These funds were already signed for between National Government and Donors and as a county we are expected to provide the matching funds if we are to benefit.
The action by the assembly means that these projects will not be carried
out in Kirinyaga. This will affect over 3,000 farmers, over 7,000 youth in our polytechnics and residents who require health services. Statutory Obligation".
The assembly she asserted removed Ksh 58m meant for payment of taxes to the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) which is a contravention of the law and will result to penalties.
On controversial allocation of Ksh 60 million legal fees,the governor explained that the President signed into law the Office of the
County Attorney Act which requires that counties have fully staffed and funded County Attorney office to handle legal matters in the county.
