Nairobi — Devolved units have continued to exceed the 35 per cent wage bill ceiling with increased spending on personnel emoluments, sitting allowances and travels.
A report released on Tuesday by Controller of Budget Margret Nyakang'o revealed low spending on development as counties prioritised recurrent expenditure.
The report covering nine months to March 2024 put development expenditure for the County Governments at Sh44.89 billion, translating to an absorption rate of 22.1 per cent of the annual FY 2023/24 development budget of Sh203.48 billion.
Only Narok and Kilifi met the Public Finance Management Act (PFM) imperative requiring recurrent expenditure to remain at 35 per cent or less compared to overral expenditure.
Narok spent 54.4 per cent of its budget on development, Bomet (48.8 per cent), Uasin Gishu (41.5 per cent), Mandera (38 per cent), and Kitui (36.6 per cent) making the four counties top absorbers of their respective approved development budgets.
The counties that had the lowest absorption rates of their respective approved development budgets included Bungoma at 11.7 per cent, Nairobi City at 9 per cent, Mombasa at 7.7 per cent, Taita Taveta at 7 per cent and Kisii at 5.7 per cent.
The counties that achieved higher overall absorption rates of their respective approved annual County Governments' budgets were Uasin Gishu at 59.9 per cent, Kitui at 59.8 per cent, Narok at 58.8 per cent, Bomet at 58.6 per cent, Nandi at 57.9 per cent, and Isiolo at 57.5 per cent.
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Others like Garissa, Kisumu, Migori, Siaya, Bungoma, and Kisii recorded the lowest aggregate absorption rates at 43.5 per cent, 43.1 per cent, 42.9 per cent, 42.8 per cent, 38.3 per cent and 37.3 per cent respectively.
Wages and Allowances
County Governments spent Sh146.53 billion on personnel emoluments, which accounted for 53.5 per cent of the total expenditure of Sh274.08 billion in the first nine months of FY 2023/24.
"This expenditure increased from Sh135.85 billion incurred in a similar period in FY 2022/23 review. Further, the analysis of the wage bills shows that Sh12.28 billion was processed manually and outside the government payroll systems," Nyakang'o said.
The figure included allowances for Members of County Assemblies on which counties spent Sh1.09 billion against an approved budget allocation of Sh2.0 billion during the reporting period.
This expenditure translated to 54.4 per cent of the approved MCAs sitting allowance budget, an increase from 34.6 per cent in the first nine months of FY 2022/23 when counties spent Sh716.57 million.
"Baringo and Embu County Assemblies reported the highest average monthly sitting allowance per MCA at Sh162,843 and Sh145,827 respectively," the Budget Controller noted.
In Nairobi County, the county approved Sh42.33 billion, comprising Sh14.01 billion (33.1 per cent) and Sh28.32 billion (66.9 per cent) allocation for development and recurrent programmes respectively.
Kiambu County was among the red-listed counties on wage expenditure with Sh 15.96 billion (65.2 per cent) recurrent expenditure and Sh8.53 billion (34.8 per cent) development spending out of a Sh24.5 billion budget.
