Massive graft in counties killing devolution dream

Many wrongs in the 47 counties are hampering the devolution dream of enhancing development for the people’s well-being. While massive resources have been disbursed to the devolved units in the 13 years since their inception, corrupt individuals, including leaders, have mismanaged or stolen some of it.

Though devolution has brought services closer to the people, it has also decentralised corruption. The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission and the Office of the Auditor-General have often exposed this endemic plunder of public funds.

Many governors breach the law by failing to allocate the mandatory minimum 30 per cent of their budgets to development. Instead, funds are funnelled into running the governors’ offices and spent on local and foreign travel, and hospitality. Some counties have been recording zero development expenditure in their quarterly reviews. The counties have also violated the law by opening an additional 1,411 unauthorised commercial bank accounts. Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakang’o says the number of accounts operating outside the approved framework has risen to 6,493 since June last year. And it continues despite the CoB flagging it numerous times.

The Public Finance Management (County Governments) Regulations require the counties’ bank accounts to be maintained at the Central Bank of Kenya. Any commercial bank accounts must be authorised in writing by the National Treasury. The proliferation of illegal bank accounts manifests weaknesses in county cash management. It is thus difficult to establish how much money is available and where. A number of first-term governors have yet to settle debts owed to county staff, contractors and suppliers that they inherited from their predecessors. Eight governors have failed to clear pending bills amounting to Sh70.23 billion in more than three years, a worrying trend just 10 months to next year’s elections.

To realise the devolution dream, the anti-graft agencies must enforce strict penalties, as counties enhance transparency with robust civic oversight.

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The author is a writer, journalist and curator of the Wall of Great Africans. X: @cobbo3