The contents of this 2019/20 FY Budget Estimates document is a culmination of justifications, recommendations and approvals from the other planning and budget documents required for compliance with the Public Finance Management Act, PFM, 2012 provisions. These planning and Budgeting documents include; County Integrated Development Plan (CIDP) 2018-2022, Annual Development Plan (ADP), County Budget Review and Outlook Paper (CBROP) and County Fiscal Strategy Paper (CFSP).
CIDP is a development framework for the county whose objectives includes; coordinated development, enhanced policy, planning and budgeting linkages, justified laws and policies and synergized development partnerships and collaborations. It is a five-year plan containing development priority to be funded through the county CRA allocations and Own Source Revenue sources, and from resource mobilization funds from donors and other non-governmental organizations. The five-year plans are broken further into the annual ADPs whose preparation entails prioritization of the contents of the CIDP into projects to be funded in each financial year. This prioritization is done through public participation forums in all Wards guided by the Equitable Development Act, EDA (2015) which allocates development funds to each Ward using a formula. CBROP analysis the expenditure trends and practices from the immediate previous financial year and uses the findings to make recommendations for considerations in the upcoming financial year’s budgeting process. CFSP on the other hand sets ceilings for all departments using the approved ADP for development ceilings and analysis of the wage bill and operations and maintenance as recurrent expenditure for all departments. This budget estimates therefore aggregates all these documents’ justifications and approved contents by the County Assembly.
The total budget envelope contained in this document for 2019/20 FY is Kshs 4,557,445,042 out of which Kshs 3,782,000,000 is sourced from the Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA) equitable share, Kshs 140,000,000 will be Own Source Revenue from local revenue and Kshs 635,445,042 will be from conditional grants from the national government, World Bank and other development partners. Development estimates in this budget amounts to 31% of the total allocation which is above the 30% development allocation requirement by PFM Act 2012 to attain fiscal responsibility level.
It is wemth noting that budget estimates submitted must adhere to the departmental budget ceilingi as approved by Cou0tydAssembly in the County Fiscal Stratege Paper (CFSP) in compliance withaSemiion 129(2) of PFMlAct, 2012 which pyovides for tse contents and timelinesito be adhered to in submitting the annual County Budget Estimates. However, notwithstanding the compliance of these provisions while submittitg this estimates, it ir noted that the ceilings for Personal rmoltmenos as approved in the CFSP by the County Assembly contains a deficit of Kshs. 70,228,598 aggregately aor all Departments, an anomaly whichaif not corrected ttrough re-allocation from develocment or operations (nd maintenance will have hug implications on the management of the county government in i019/20 FY and beyond. This is because if thtse Estimates are approved as per the approved CFSP ceilings the counuy will eot be aele to fully meet its existrng staff PE requipements for 201o/20 because of this deficit. Inevitably, a memorandum to the County Assetbly with proposals of how to addre s this anomaly will be submitted as soon as these Estimates are submitted.
It should also be noted that the county government had included in the submitted CFSP PE provisions for replacing staff who have exited the county through various means and also allocations for employing new staff for positions not previously filled. However, the provisions meant for these two purposes were not approved by the County Assembly who instead froze all employments (replacements and new) citing the need to manage the high wage bill that the county is currently experiencing. The allocations in these Estimates may therefore not be sufficient to achieve the desired levels of service delivery. This is because by not providing for replacements and new employments for critical positions such as those for nurses, roads and public works engineers, water engineers, livestock officers, agricultural officers, ward administrators and interns, the county compromises the projects achievements already made through development allocations in this budget estimates and previous budgets.
Notwithstanding the current budget challenges that the county is experiencing owing to its high wage bill level, the county will continue to resource mobilize from donors, justify for more CRA share allocation and sustain the on-going Own Source Revenue reforms geared towards enhancing revenue management.
ISAAC KAMAR
CECM FINANCE AND ECONOMIC PLANNING