Governor Alfred Mutua addresses Machakos County Assembly recently.(Photo/Maugo/hivisasa.com)
Machakos County Assembly has been accused of sabotaging Governor Alfred Mutua’s government for rejecting the MCAs Sh1.3 billion budget proposal for 2017- 2018 financial year.
An official from the government who sought anonymity for fear of victimization said the assembly had vowed to sabotage the executive until their budget demands were met.
“The MCAs have vowed to sabotage the executive until their demands are met, they said will shoot down anything including bills Governor Mutua brings forth to the assembly,” the source told the Star on Saturday.
Documents obtained by the Star dated November 13th and 16th, 2017 show correspondences between the County Government and the Machakos County Assembly showing a back and forth of the assembly asking for large amounts of money without itemizing or showing the programs they intend to roll out.
They demanded for a block of money based on a division of the budget estimates divided by number of months.
The Machakos Government denied the assembly the funds citing lack of proper accounting.
The executive claimed the assembly was wasting public funds, demanding for money that would have done more development for the people of Machakos.
“They want to spend the money without producing a budget or their agenda so as to find leeway of looting the cash,” the source said.
“The total appropriated budget for the 2017/2018 FY is Sh 9,990,184,543. Out of the above, Sh8,290,184,543 is to be funded through Equitable Share from National Treasury transfers while Sh1,700,000,000 is to be funded using county’s own source revenue,” reads part of the document from Machakos Government’s county treasury.
“Judging from the reported revenue collection for the last two Financial Years which has been approximately Sh1.2 billion for FY2015/2016 and Sh1.3 billion for FY2016/2017,it is highly unlikely that the projected Sh1.7 billion will be met….
In order not to spend monies that are not available, it is advisable to cut the total budget by Sh400 million,” reads the document in part.
In another correspondence under possession of the Star, a county executive says “As you are aware, county funds are public resources which must be spent strictly in accordance with the Principles of Public Finance under Article 201 0f the constitution…
We have noted that your requisition is not based on itemized and program based budget needs but on a division of the total budgeted amount with the number of months. Ordinarily, it would be expected that some months will have higher needs than others hence itemized requisitions based on actual requirements per month.”
The assembly rejected all the five CEC members nominated by Mutua recently.