Cash crunch looms in counties over delayed fund disbursement by Treasury

A 90-day delay in the release of funds to the devolved units is taking a toll on operations according to the Council of Governors (CoG) and if no measures to address the current situation are taken, may shut down county governments.

CoG says the delay in the release of the funds is further compounded by the sliced sharable revenue, following the withdrawal of the Finance Bill, 2024 which it says will have far-reaching consequences.

“With Ksh.380 billion which was already approved by the National Assembly through the Supplementary Budget, this is also going to affect the shareable of the venues,” said Fernandes Barasa, Chairperson of the CoG Finance Committee.

Eric Mutai, the Kericho Governor added: “Many times, Counties are forced to have four-month-long arrears, and this year, like previous years is no better. This is because every administration since devolution, has not reached where we need to go.”

The cry over the cash strap compelling the Council of Governors to forewarn of looming scaled-down operations and service delivery.

“We just want to warn the counties that it is not going to be business as usual and the only remedy is to maximize on Own Source Revenue and that is what I am calling upon my colleagues,” said Barasa.

Counties have since the advent of devolution been beset with combined challenges of delays in the release of funds on time, and successive administrations that have displayed little or no appetite for the total devolution of all functions.