Members of Meru County Assembly follow proceedings during a past session. The ward road projects budget has been affected by the ongoing tussle between governors and MPs on the Road Maintenance Levy Fund.
Ward development projects planned in the 2024/2025 financial year in Meru have taken a hit after the county lost over Sh879 million in its projected revenue.
The loss of Sh796 million in conditional grants and Sh95 million from the equitable share saw the county’s budget reduced from Sh13.9 billion to Sh13.03 billion.
The ward road projects budget has been affected by the ongoing tussle between the Council of Governors and the National Assembly on the Road Maintenance Levy Fund, where Meru is likely to lose over Sh284 million this financial year.
Speaking while presenting a report on supplementary budget for the 2024/2025 financial year, Meru County Assembly Budget Committee Chairman Martin Makasi called for a quick resolution of the intergovernmental dispute to save counties from financial crisis.
“The road maintenance levy fund has been of great value to counties in improving roads. Due to this dispute, the allocation to ward projects has been reduced from Sh36 million to Sh25.6 million,” he said.
Mr Makasi said the county is also experiencing challenges in the construction of Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE) classrooms after the Controller of Budget barred school committees from procuring contractors.
The county has been allocating about Sh500,000 per ECDE classroom through school committees.
“The Controller of Budget advised that all county projects must be done through the procurement process. However, no contractor is willing to take a job of less than Sh1 million in the county. Due to this policy change, we have more than 30 stalled ECDE classrooms across the county,” the Nkuene MCA said.
MCAs are now recommending the expansion of the scope of ECDE classroom projects to include a kitchen and toilets so as to attract contractors.
The supplementary budget has also allowed Governor Isaac Mutuma’s administration to reallocate more than Sh265 million, which was meant for employment of workers, to development projects.
The money cannot be spent on employment due to a court suit against the County Public Service Board.
Early this year, the board had advertised more than 500 job openings but former governor Kawira Mwangaza stopped the recruitment citing a bloated wage bill.
However, the county assembly, which passed the supplementary budget, recommended that the county public service board re-advertises the jobs in the first quarter of 2025/2026 financial year.
