Marsabit County Headquarters
The County Government of Marsabit has been making efforts to transform the lives of the residents of the county, but a section of the locals say the impact of the County Government projects and programs are not felt in all corners of the county.
The County Assembly of Marsabit passed a 8.4 billion budget for the 2021-2022 financial year where the MCAs allowed the government to spend 4.3 billion (52 %) on recurrent expenditure and 4 billion(48%) to go to development.
Based on the performance of last financial year, the county used 53% on development and 47% on recurrent expenditure. This is a commendable move according to the Controller of Budget.
Being the last financial year to execute many activities in his election manifesto, Governor Ali is expected to improve on his financial management to have more impact on the ground.
In the last financial year, the County spent Kshs.7.2 billion representing 95% of the total funds budgeted that comprised of Kshs.3.44 billion for recurrent and Kshs.3.76 billion on development activities.
The county government was only able to raise Kshs.150 million representing only 1.7 5 of the 2020/2021 budget meaning more efforts need to be put to increase the resources that are needed by the resident of the semi-arid county.
The Controller of Budget revealed that the Department of Administration and County Public Service Board recorded the highest absorption rate of development budget at 100 % while the County Assembly had the lowest development absorption rate at 28.5 %. And surprisingly the Department of Public Works and Roads had the highest percentage of recurrent expenditure to budget at 99.1 % while the Department of Agriculture had the lowest at 59.4 %.
On a positive note, the County spent Kshs.36.4 million on committee sitting allowances for the 31 MCAs and Speaker against the annual budget allocation of Kshs.40 million. It was revealed that the average monthly sitting allowance was Kshs.97,849 per MCA against a ceiling of Kshs.124,800 as put by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission recommended monthly.
Despite the travel bans as a result of COVID 19, Domestic travel amounted to over Kshs.170 million and comprised Kshs.76.26 million spent by the County Assembly and Kshs.94.86 million by the County Executive.
The trend of Mohamed Ali’s government is a positive one where more resources are channeled to development activities that have a direct positive impact on the residents unlike the case in most counties.
The underperformance in generating revenue by the county government has hampered many activities that should be done by the government. The county generated Kshs.110.37 million against an annual projection of Kshs. 150 million, which represented 73% of the annual target.
Governor Ali is expected to pull up his socks to win the hearts of Marsabit residents as he seeds to secure his second term.
