A Senate Committee on Thursday asked the Controller of Budget to suspend funds meant for construction of official residences for Governors, their Deputies and Speakers of County Assemblies in the 2018/19 budgets.
The Budget and Finance Committee argued that the variance in the cost of construction was inexplicably wide.
Mohamed Muhamud, the committee's Chair, called for experts and stakeholders to be brought in to review the projects' structural designs to ensure they are rationalised and harmonised.
Asserting the need for specific guidelines to be put in place, he lamented that counties had pumped huge amounts of money into non-core projects at the expense of core ones.
“Counties are investing heavily in non-core projects at the expense of core projects and our mandate is ensure that public funds are used prudently,” he stated.
[caption caption="Inside the National Assembly"]
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In the recently announced county budgets, several counties set aside hundreds of millions to facilitate construction of official residences.
Kilifi County, for instance, allocated Sh214 million for the Deputy Governor's residence and Sh200 million for the Speaker's residence while Kirinyaga set aside Sh100 Million for the Governor's residence.
Nairobi earmarked Sh130 million for the Speaker's residence while Uasin Gishu and Garissa allocated Sh80 million and Sh75 million respectively for the same.
Muhamud reiterated that this was as a result of counties scrambling to comply with a circular from the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) mandating the counties to prioritise construction of official residences in the 2018/19 financial year.
The SRC had noted that many counties were still paying exorbitant amounts in rent for Governors and their Deputies.
The senators have, however, demanded that the circular be revoked and the revocation published within the next seven days.
[caption caption="A past media briefing by the Council of Governors"]
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