Treasury asks for more time to disburse funds to counties

Speaking when he appeared before the Senate Public accounts investment committee, Treasury PS Dr Chris Kiptoo told senators that it's not true that they are denying counties their fair share. 

According to Kiptoo, it's unfair to claim that Treasury is holding on to the money, and that they disburse money as and when they collect it.

"We acknowledge we are three months behind, and I know you have asked me, when will you pay, I want to say we will pay based on the revenues that we get," Kiptoo told the Godfrey Osotsi-led committee. 

Kiptoo said counties received Ksh.36 billion for December disbursements last week, and as of now, there is money in the accounts of most the counties. 

"I know there is the issue of county vs national, which we are trying to see how to address because we are trying to see the issue of equity and predictability, please give us time, but there are things that come first like we must pay our debts," he said. 

Kiptoo said the debt component is taking a huge chunk of the resources they are collecting. 

"We don't want to hear that Kenya has failed to pay its debt, this month of March we have done over Ksh.150B for debt, so what happens is that we delay giving for development and even counties, even ministries have not received development budget from July to now, so it's not like Treasury have favoured Ministries against counties," the PS insisted.

However, the answer was not satisfactory to Senators who insisted that they can't give the treasury a blank cheque on when they will be disbursing the monies. 

"Every year we pass a disbursement schedule, and it's not fair that we pass the schedule and it's disregarded, we will give you until 15th of April for you to ensure that the January disbursement, if not we will summon you again, because when you say very soon, we are not sure when that soon will be," said committee chair Osotsi. 

Most counties have been wobbling as a result of delayed disbursement, with most resulting to taking overdrafts from banks to pay salaries.