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Devolution is intended to bring services closer to the people. The county budget process is a big part of doing this as it is how the government, including the county governments, allocate scarce resources to various programmes and services. Under the Division of Revenue Act Ksh 210 billion was allocated to county budgets, Ksh190 billion in unconditional transfers, and Ksh 20 billion in conditional transfers.
To say that the last county budget process was messy is an understatement. Several counties almost missed the July deadline for submission of budget estimates, when the budget estimates were submitted they revealed skewed priorities.
Though people expected start up costs associated with setting up of the county governments, most Kenyans were expecting that the set up costs would be weighed against development needs of the counties and a reasonable ground between development and recurrent costs set up. An audit report on county budgets from the Office of the Controller shows that county governments spent a majority of their budgets on recurrent expenditures e.g. salaries and allowances. According to the report more than half of the 47 did not spend a single cent on development during the quarter between July and September.
To rectify the above the Senate Committee on Devolution has announced that is currently in the process of legislating county budgets to ensure 70 per cent of the budget is reserved for development projects while the rest will cater for recurrent expenditure. But what is the role of citizens in ensure the county budgets reflect their priorities?
There are broad provisions for public participation in the county budgeting process both in the constitution and national law. Article 201(a) of the constitution requires openness, accountability and public participation in financial matters further the Public Finance Management Act, Section 125(2), demands that the County Executive Committees ensure there is public participation in the entire budget process. Despite these provisions the frameworks for participation are sketchy at best, not to mention that the budgeting processes can be daunting to most people.
The International Budget Partnership Kenya has created tools that can help the public ensure that the next budget cycle caters to their priorities i.e. health care, education, infrastructure and development 16 Key Questions About Your County Budget: A Tool for Reading and Understanding County Budgets and Learning By Doing: Toward Better County Budgets in 2014/15. Hold county governments accountable.
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