Nairobi — The National and County Governments Coordinating Summit has issued a landmark resolution aimed at ending delays in the payment of county government employees' salaries.
According to the communiqué issued after the 12th Ordinary Session of the Summit on Wednesday, the National Treasury is now mandated to disburse all personnel emoluments to County Revenue Fund (CRF) accounts by the third day of every month.
"The National Treasury shall disburse by the third day of every month all the related personnel emolument costs for all the county governments to the respective County Revenue Fund Account (CRF),"the communique read.
The directive directly addresses the systemic delays that have seen devolved unit staff, particularly in the critical health sector, go without pay for up to three months, crippling service delivery and causing financial distress across the country.
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To operationalize the new system, the Communique directs the Controller of Budget (CoB) to expedite the approval of releases to county governments.
"The Controller of Budget shall expedite approval of releases to county governments,"the communique read.
In a reciprocal measure, County Governments are now required to ensure that all statutory deductions including Sacco contributions, taxes, and pension remittances are paid out to the respective agencies by the ninth day of every month.
"Subsequently, the County governments shall ensure that all the statutory deductions are paid out by the ninth day of every month,"the communique read.
The move comes after months of escalating tensions where the Council of Governors (CoG) accused the National Treasury of being in arrears by tens of billions of shillings, forcing counties to seek costly bank overdrafts or face worker strikes.
The Council of Governors, which has repeatedly cited the delays as the biggest threat to devolution, hailed the Summit's intervention as a necessary step towards fiscal accountability.
The Constitution, under Article 203 (1)(j), requires county revenue to be stable and predictable. Article 209 further provides that the counties' share of nationally raised revenue must be transferred without undue delay or deductions. Similarly, Section 17(6) of the Public Finance Management Act obligates the Treasury to release funds to counties at the start of every month, and no later than the 15th day.
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Latest disbursement was made in September where Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakang'o sanctioned the release of Sh33.2 billion to county governments for the month of August, in a significant stride towards fiscal decentralisation.
The allocation follows the adoption of the County Allocation of Revenue Bill, 2025, by the Budget and Appropriations Committee on August 6.
The legislation sets the equitable share of national revenue to county governments at Sh415 billion for the 2025-26 financial year.
