Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko and Devolution Cabinet Secretary Eugene
Wamalwa sign the takeover deal on February 25, 2020 at State House, with
President Uhuru Kenyatta and Senate Speaker Kenneth Lusaka as
witnesses. PHOTO | FILE | PSCU
Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko has
declined to assent to a bill allocating more than Sh15 billion to the
newly established Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) for transferred
functions, escalating the push and pull between the two entities.
Governor
Sonko referred Nairobi County Supplementary Appropriation Bill, 2020
back to the assembly, saying amendments in it contravened provisions of
the law.
The bill was to become law on Thursday but Sonko's move sends the NMS and the assembly back to the drawing board.
In
a letter to Speaker Beatrice Elachi, the governor argued that the
assembly irregularly transferred and allocated the monies in the bill,
even to functions that were never transferred to the new office.
He
further said that the amendments by the assembly were done without the
input of the county’s finance executive contrary to provisions of
section 131 (2) of the Public Finance Management Act and section 21(3)
of the County Governments Act.
“I
do hereby refuse to assent to the bill for the reasons contained in the
attached memorandum, and accordingly, I do hereby refer the bill back
to the Assembly for consideration in accordance with section 24(3) (4)
and (5) of the County Governments Act,” he said in an April 15 letter
copied to Attorney-General Paul Kihara, the Controller of Budget and the
Government Printer.
ELACHI'S REACTION
However, Speaker Elachi said the “rejection” by the governor meant he did not need the budget for the year that he signed.
“It
is his budget yet he says he has rejected it, meaning he does not need a
budget. He should have just returned it with reservations,” said Ms
Elachi.
She confirmed
that her office had received the memorandum from the governor and would
look into the reservations with the assembly’s lawyers before deciding
on the next course of action.
“I
was expecting it. If he cannot respect what he singed at State House
then he should come out and say so, not open a fight with the assembly
as we are only following the law,” she said.
MCA'S APPROVAL
On
April 2, Nairobi MCAs approved the transfer of more than Sh15 billion
to the NMS for the delivery of transferred functions falling under the
new office, retaining figures approved in the annual budget estimates.
The
legislators also agreed that some of the activities related to legal
services, procurement, audit, inspectorate, sub county administration,
ICT, public finance management and human resources be part of ancillary
services transferred to the NMS.
However,
the City Hall boss argued that the bill allocated funds to functions
which were never transferred from the county government to the NMS.
He
cited security and safety management; disaster management coordination;
information and communication services; public financial management;
and economic and financial policy formulation and management.
Others
were public service transformation; general administrative services;
food systems and surveillance, afforestation and animal health, safety
and quality assurance.
NEED BASIS
Governor
Sonko contended that the ancillary or support services were to be
identified and transferred on a need basis after evaluation by the
county's Public Service Board and the Public Service Commission.
“A
review of the first schedule of the bill, submitted by the Speaker for
my assent on the various monies appropriated by the assembly to NMS,
provides for allocations of monies to functions which were never
transferred to the NMS and still remain functions of Nairobi County,” he
said.
Governor Sonko
pointed out that the proposed allocations, as worded, were contrary to
the Deed of Transfer which provided for ancillary services but did not
contemplate the whole outright transfer of the listed functions.
“Furthermore,
I note that other ancillary services such as procurement, accounting,
legal, enforcement services to support the transferred functions shall
be determined based on a needs assessment by both the County Board and
the Public Service Board,” said Mr Sonko.
SONKO'S RECOMMENDATIONS
In
his recommendations, the governor proposed that a maximum of Sh520
million can be allocated under Emergency Fund in line with section 113
of the PFM Act which says that payments exceeding two percent of last
audited accounts cannot be made out of the Fund.
“In
the last audited accounts for the financial year ending June 30, 2019,
the county reported a consolidated revenue of Sh26 billion and
therefore, the maximum that may be provided under the Emergency Fund is
Sh520,209,510,” he said.
In
light of the above, he recommended that Sh500 million be appropriated
to the fund for all emergencies, including the Covid-19, and any that
any other funds be allocated under the preventive and promotive health
services programme under the Health Services sector.
The
assembly had allocated Sh1.025 billion for Covid-19-related
interventions, Sh85 million being for ward-based interventions including
purchase of hand sanitisers, masks and related items. Each of the 85
wards was assigned Sh1 million.
The remaining Sh940 million was to remain under the Emergency Fund for general health interventions related to the pandemic.
Further,
Mr Sonko recommended that the county government retain the public
finance management and economic and financial policy formulation and
management.
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