Kisumu County Deputy Governor (DG) Dr Mathews Ochieng Owili has denied claims that the Kisumu County Assembly rejected the county’s budget proposal for the 2019/2020 financial year.
Addressing members of the press in his office in Kisumu on Monday, Owili claimed that the assembly differed discussion on the budget committee report.
“There has been misconception that Kisumu County Assembly has rejected the county budget proposal for the financial year 2019/2020. The assembly has not rejected the budget; let alone discuss the budget committee report on the budget proposal as directed by the legal timelines, but the assembly has differed discussion on the budget committee report. This is ostensibly to receive some clarifications on certain aspects of the budget,” said the DG.
The DG said Kisumu County Assembly Speaker Onyango Oloo has no voice in the budget making process, after Oloo allegedly claimed that the assembly declined to pass the Sh10.4 billion budget due to glaring irregularities.
“Budget making as we all know is a function of the executive and is never designed to fleece the public. That is not the vision of Governor Professor Peter Anyang’ Nyong’o’s administration. In fact we are aware that the process of making this particular budget has been hampered greatly because of the insistence of the Speaker that we allocate Sh600 million for the building of the assembly," added the DG.
He said such an allocation is against the directive of the commission on revenue allocation.