A number of counties have missed out on the Sh 4million funding. According to a report released by the National Treasury, some Sh3.124 billion was withheld due to failure to adhere to the requirements and Sh1.044 billion because of delays by ministry officials to submit accounting instructions.
The government usually imposes restrictions on conditional allocations. County governments can only spend the money on specific items in their budgets. If, for example, a county receives a conditional grant for a level five hospital, it should not put the money into any other use.
“County governments may be given additional allocations from the national share of the revenue, either conditionally or unconditionally,” Article 202 of the Constitution says.
The money that has not been disbursed includes Sh1.2 billion for Kenya Climate-Smart Agriculture, Sh935.4 million for Water and Sanitation Development and Sh405.8 million for Transforming Health Systems and Universal Care.
Affected projects
The other amounts are Sh361.2 million for the National Agriculture and Rural Inclusive Growth Project, Sh51 million for the Kenya Urban Support Project Level II, and Sh45.3 million for Danida grant on universal Health Care in Devolved Systems.
Also held by Treasury is Sh125.3 million for the construction of county government headquarters. Council of Governors Finance Committee chairman Ndiritu Muriithi asked Treasury to make public the reasons for withholding the money.
“Treasury should clarify what the failures are. We are alive to the fact that the allocations are made based on meeting certain specific conditions. It is difficult to comment on this without knowing individual failures,” said Muriithi.
The programmes affected in this category are Sh528 million for the Water Tower Protection, Climate Change and Adaptation, Sh300 million for the Northern Kenya Drought Resilience and Sh216 million for Instruments for Devolution Advice.
