Collection of revenue in Kenya’s 47 counties fell short of expectations in the financial year 2023/24 affecting development and payment of suppliers during the period.
The Controller of Budget, Margaret Nyakango says in the FY 2023/24, the County Governments managed to raise Kshs.58.95 billion from local revenue sources, which accounted for 72.8 per cent of the cumulative annual local revenue target of Kshs.80.94 billion.The County governments which recorded low performance of own source revenue were Nyandarua at 42.1 per cent, Machakos at 46.5 per cent, Mandera at 50.8 per cent, Nyamira at 53.8 per cent, Bungoma at 55.8 per cent, Kajiado at 56.1 per cent, and Busia at 56.9 of annual targets.As of 30th June 2024, counties reported outstanding pending bills of Kshs 181.98 billion, comprised of Kshs 179.87 billion by the County Executive and Kshs.2.11 billion by County Assemblies.An analysis of own-source revenue as a proportion of the annual revenue target indicated that ten counties outperformed their annual targets, namely Turkana at 241.2 per cent, Vihiga at 136.3 per cent, Kirinyaga at 118.4 per cent, Lamu at 116.2 per cent, Nandi at 113 per cent, Wajir at 110 per cent, Garissa at 108.2 per cent, Nyeri at 106.1 per cent, Samburu at 104.1 per cent, and Murang’a at 100.2 per cent.
The Scourge of Pending BillsNairobi City County Executive reported the highest outstanding pending bills of Kshs 118.44 billion, which represents 65.1 percent of the entire stock of pending bills.
Other counties with the highest outstanding pending bills were Kiambu at Kshs.6.49 billion, Mombasa at Kshs 4.44 billion, Machakos at Kshs 4.20 billion, Bungoma at Kshs 3.52 billion, and Kisumu at Kshs 3.15 billion.
“The office recommends that all eligible pending bills be budgeted as a first charge in the budget per Regulation,” Nyakango said.
The total available funds to the forty-seven County governments in FY 2023/24 amounted to Kshs 492.47 billion. This comprised Kshs 354.59 billion as the equitable share of revenue raised nationally, Kshs 35.97 billion received as additional allocations/conditional grants disbursements from various Development Partners, Kshs 42.96 billion in cash balances from FY 2022/23, and Kshs 58.95 billion mobilized from own-source revenue streams.
The cumulative expenditure for the forty-seven County governments amounted to Kshs.446.76 billion. It accounted for 99.0 per cent of the total funds authorised for withdrawal by the Controller of Budget. This expenditure comprised of Kshs.337.53 billion (75.6 per cent) for recurrent activities and Kshs.109.23 billion (24.4 per cent) for development activities.
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