Treasury Principal Secretary Kamau Thugge was on the receiving end after he revealed that only Ksh1.1 billion out of the Ksh12.4 billion kitty has been released to date since the promulgation of the Constitution in 2010.
This caused an uproar in the National Cohesion and Equal Opportunity Committee after it emerged that the government had not been remitting Equalisation Fund allocations to the identified 14 marginalised counties.
On Thursday lawmakers were dismayed by revelations that the monies had been utilised on office expenditure instead of benefiting the public as intended in the Constitution.
Thugge stated that the money was lying idle because Parliament had not approved a Supplementary Appropriations Bill since expenditure in the past years could not be approved.
[caption caption="Treasury PS Kamau Thugge"]
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His explanation, however, fell ears as MPs led by Maina Kamanda (Nominated), Adan Keynan (Eldas), James Lomenen (Turkana South) accused the National Treasury lacking the political will to implement the Constitution by releasing the money.
Kamanda stated: “Anything to do with public money is the business of that man right there (pointing at PS Thugge) if he wanted it passed by Thursday believe me it will be done, but as long as it is not utilised, it means he gets to divert it to other uses.”
The MPs dismissed a list of projects named as having been financed through the Fund, arguing they are only on paper.
“This is unacceptable; the government needs to tell us if they are unwilling to implement the Constitution on the Equalisation Fund, this is not a favour it’s a right,” Keynan stated.
Keynan demanded the PS furnish the committee with the audited statement of the bank accounts of the Equalisation Fund showing when the account was opened with the Central Bank of Kenya, interest acquired since its inception and annual deposits made since inception in 2010.
[caption caption="Nominated MP Maina Kamanda"]
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The Constitution states that the government is supposed to set aside 0.5 percent of the budget to the Equalisation Fund to help counties that have been marginalized.
