Nairobi county was closely followed by Taita Taveta County with 18.1 percent, Tana River County with 18.4%, Samburu County with 18.7 percent and Laikipia County which had 19 percent.
County Governments are required to set aside a minimum of 30 percent of its revenue for development purposes as per the development expenditure pursuant to section 107(2)(b) of the Public Finance Management Act,2012.
Most counties met this legal requirement and allocated at least thirty percent of their approved budget to development but did not spend it.
When data from the last two financial years (2018-2019 and 2019-2020) was captured, Nairobi County joined a club of other 10 governors who invested little money into capital generating projects yet they struggled in collecting revenue.
The Counties which had the highest percentage of development to total expenditure include Marsabit with 44.1 percent, Mandera with 43.4 percent, Kwale County with 39.4 percent, Kakamega County with 39.3 percent and Isiolo County with 38.1 percent.
Counties spent 44.8 percent of their total expenditure in the 2019/20 on the wage bill. This is a worrying trend that if not tamed would greatly impact negatively on service delivery.
County Governments’ actual Own Source Revenue (OSR) collection for 2019/20 financial year was Ksh. 35.8 billion against a target of Ksh. 54.9 billion representing 65.2 percent of the annual target.
This was a drop in absolute terms from Ksh. 40.3 billion collected in 2018/19 financial year that was 74.8 percent of the annual OSR target by the Counties.
Five Counties surpassed their revenue targets in the 2019/20 financial year. These Counties are; Homa Bay at 154.6 percent, Taita Taveta at 128.7 percent, Machakos 118.6 percent, Lamu 108.9 percent and Bomet at 100.3 percent.
On the other hand, seven Counties annual collection was below 50 percent of their target. These Counties are Kisii 38.3 percent, Kajiado at 39.1 percent, Wajir at 40.3 percent, Siaya at 42.7 percent , Nandi at 45.0 percent and Meru at 46.5 percent.
Source: KENYAGIST.COM
