Senators will not let funds allocated to counties in the 2019/20 financial year be reduced, Bungoma Senator Moses Wetang’ula has said.
Speaking during a burial in Kiminini constituency on Saturday, Wetang’ula said Senate will not sit back and watch as the budgetary allocation for county governments is whittled down.
The National Assembly last week approved a National Treasury’s proposal in the Division of Revenue Bill to allocate Sh310 billion to the 47 counties, a figure lower than Sh335 billion that the senators are demanding.
“For some strange reason the National Assembly passed a bill that has reduced money to counties to Sh310 billion. The bill has come to the Senate and we have rejected it. We have agreed that funds going to counties will be Sh335 billion. The matter is going to the mediation table and I want to tell MPs, for the first time in the Senate, we are going to negotiate from a fixed position,” he said.
The former senate leader of minority further said they will be pushing for allocation of funds to counties based on annual budgets.
Currently, the amount of money allocated for counties from the national government is based on the audited accounts.
“As we go to the future, division of revenue must be based on annual budget and not audited account. This will enable counties to get sufficient allocation to finance various development projects,” Wetang’ula said.
On the ongoing fight against corruption, the Ford Kenya party leader expressed the need for concerted efforts to ensure protection of public funds by prosecution of all those implicated in graft.
He said due to graft, the promised construction of Turbo-Naitiri-Sikhendu-Suam road is yet to kick off yet billions of shillings have been lost in several mega dam projects.