Busia Governor Sospeter Ojaamong became the inaugural winner of the Performance for Results (P 4 R) champion after Busia was named the top county by the World Bank over its high performance in service delivery and prudence public finance management
Busia which led 13 other counties benefitted from Sh553million conditional grant extended to counties through the Kenya Devolution Support Programme.
Devolution Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa presented the Dummy cheque to the tune of Sh1.95 billion to governors and representatives of the 13 counties during the implementation launch at Laico Regency, Nairobi.
The Governor was flanked by acting County Executive Committee Member for Finance Phaustine Barasa, CECM for Public Works Okwara Ekirapa, County Secretary Nicodemus Mulaku and Chief of Staff Sebastian Okiring.
Nyandarua which finished second received Sh282m with Makueni contented with Sh168m after taking third position.
Busia emerged top after meeting five key results areas including public finance management, planning, monitoring and evaluation, human resource and performance management, civic education and public participation, and environmental and social safeguards.
‘’ We shall invest the funds in projects that are in the big four agenda mainly health and agriculture,’’ he said, adding that he will personally ensure that there’s value for money in implementing these projects.
Deputy Auditor General William Agunda said one of the conditions for the grants was the production of audited reports. ‘’ Unfortunately on 13 counties qualified after his office gave them a clean bill of health,’’ he said.
CS Eugene Wamalwa lauded Busia said he will continue providing support to County Governments to make Devolution Work and to realize the implementation of the Big Four Agenda.
Meanwhile, Busia Deputy Governor Moses Mulomi has said that the county Government is working on logistics to get money to supply learning materials and increase ECDE teachers in schools.
“Once money is disbursed from national treasury we are going to ensure that our schools get the materials. And we are not just going to settle on any publisher, we are going to factor in a number of things like the content, binding or the durability, printing and prices and approval by Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development among others ,” said Mulomi as he received samples of ECDE learning materials from Longhorn Publishers Limited.
The County Executive Committee member for Education and vocational training John Mwami said sampling of learning materials is on and that they will only settle on the qualified publisher who will supply learning materials for the new curriculum to schools in Busia county.
“We are hoping that if we want to succeed and get value for money, we could work with the publisher who would have met all the requirements and we could sign a memorandum of understanding to avoid middle men,” added Mwami as he encouraged other publishers to bring in their materials for sampling.
Nevertheless, Mwami said that schools are expected to benefit from all these in third term.
Professionals in Busia County have formed Busia County Think Tank Society in bid to bring together all professionals and other stakeholders of Busia County to donate their expertise for the sole purpose of growth and development of Busia County. The founders of this society include: Dr. Vitalis Ogemah, a Lecturer at Masinde Muliro University; Major (Rtd) Patrick Musibi, a Consultant on Developmental matters; Mr. Sylvester Namagwa, a Certified Public Accountant of Kenya and a Management expert; and Bonaventure Nalugala, an Economist and Tax consultant. The activities of the society covers virtually all spheres of the economy.
Busia County Think Tank Society is a ‘give back to the society’ initiative, where professionals in their respective areas of specialization donate their brain and expertise to help the county make progress in all its spheres for economic growth and development