Controller of Budget raises red flag over wasteful county spending on foreign trips, sitting allowances

The office of the Controller of Budget's review of the implementation of county budgets for the year 2022/2023 shows that counties continue to surpass the set limit of expenditure on wages and benefits for their personnel.

The report shows that in the year under review, counties spent 41.5% of the realised revenues of Ksh.466.01billion, a figure above the recommended 35% of total revenues.

Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakang’o noted that only five counties managed to keep their personnel expenditure within the 35% ceiling, namely; Turkana, Tana River, Mandera, Kwale, and Samburu.

She also raised concerns over the counties’ expenditures on domestic travel across the counties.

Turkana County leads the top five counties spending highly on domestic travel with Ksh.1.14 billion having been spent in the year under review.

Migori spent Ksh.894 million, Bungoma (Ksh.696 million) while Tana River and Nairobi spent Ksh.532 million and Ksh.529 million on domestic travel last financial year.

On the other end of the scale, Vihiga County had the least domestic travel expenditure with only Ksh.79.10 million going to this item, while Lamu, Taita Taveta, Mandera and Tharaka Nithi all spent less than Ksh.150 million in the year under review.

The report also flagged what it termed as the flouting of regulations on foreign travel by the counties. According to regulations, a county delegation travelling outside the country should not have more than seven people including staff.

A good number of counties have disregarded this and sent out delegations of upto 50 people per trip, in most cases those travelling in the large delegations coming from the county assemblies.

Another red flag highlighted by the office of the Controller of Budget is the spending on sitting allowances paid to MCAs.

A total of Ksh.1.34 billion was paid to MCAs in 2022/2023 financial year, against an approved budget of Ksh.1.68 billion.

MCAs in Busia earned a total of Ksh.101,533 as sitting allowances; those in Mombasa earned Ksh.100,000; Migori (Ksh.97,000); Nyeri and Samburu getting a total of Ksh.79,000 and Ksh.78,000 respectively over the period.

These lucrative allowances were paid out against a backdrop of mounting debts the counties owe to their suppliers and contractors in the year under review.

The Controller of Budget says in the report that the counties had outstanding pending bills of Ksh.164.76 billion; Nairobi County alone accounting for Ksh.107.33 billion of that amount.

The report also shows an improvement in the counties spending on development as compared to the previous reporting period.

Marsabit County led the pack on development expenditure as a percentage of total expenditure having used 35.4% of its money on development; Baringo spent 31.2%, Uasin Gishu 31.0%, Mandera 30.8% and Kwale 30.4%.

The Controller of Budget however wants the counties to increase the spending on development and reduce spending on personal emoluments and travel expenditures, improve on their own source revenue collection, eliminate manual payroll operations and submit their financial reports on time.