The Council of Governors (COG) has threatened legal action to compel the National Treasury to release Sh94.7 billion meant for counties.
In the letter to Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani, CoG chair Wycliffe Oparanya has also threatened shut down of county services to alleviate county employees who have not been paid for months from suffering.
“Please note that if the disbursement is not made forthwith, the county governments will have no option other than seek legal redress while closing down to minimize further damage and suffering to employees,”
Oparanya lamented that counties have not received disbursements from the Treasury for four months, with some devolved units starved for five months now.
“We note with utmost concern that County Governments have not received disbursements for October, November, December 2020 and January, 2021,” reads the letter dated January.
The Kakamega Governor copied the letter to Controller of Budget (CoB) Margaret Nyakango, National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi and his senate counterpart Kenneth Lusaka.
“Some of the Counties have not even received the September disbursement bringing the total balance to sh.94.7 Billion,” it adds.
Oparanya reiterated that the delayed disbursement has hindered service delivery during the wake of Covid-19 pandemic; when the County Governments are the expected to be at the frontline in offering health services.
In addition, County Government Civil Servants have not been paid salaries for the three months unlike their National Government counterparts who have been paid all their dues and statutory deductions made.
“The delay in disbursement of these funds has negatively affected lives of County Government Civil Servants and service delivery in the following aspects; failure of payment to contractors, and failure of development budget implementation and failure of submission of statutory deduction,” he said.
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