MCAs reduce Kidero’s office budget by over Sh250m
The Nairobi County Assembly has reduced the budget for Governor Evans Kidero’s office by Sh250 million.
The Governor had sought Sh4.8 billion of the total Sh29 billion budget. He wanted Sh40 million to be spent on buying uniforms for the City Inspectorate department.
He had also proposed to be allocated another Sh9 million for maintenance of furniture in his office.
However, the County Assembly Budget Committee has scrapped the proposal for City Inspectorate to be bought uniforms in their report that was approved by the house on Thursday.
MAINTENANCE OF FURNITURE
They allocated only Sh700, 000 for the maintenance of furniture at Dr Kidero’s office.
“These expenditures have been appearing in every year’s estimates. You cannot keep on purchasing the same things every year,” the chairman of the committee Michael Oganda said while presenting the report.
During a public forum the budget committee had hosted last month, Nairobi residents opposed plans to spend Sh4.8 billion on the governor’s office.
They instead demanded that more money be allocated for development.
During the presentation of the report yesterday, the MCAs also reduced money for foreign travel by members of the County Assembly Service Board, which comprises of the office of the Speaker, Clerk and majority and minority leaders.
They reduced the money by Sh10.3 million saying more money should be allocated to development projects as the public had suggested.
The MCAs’ also cut their foreign budget by Sh5.8 million.
KITTY FOR WARDS
The committee also recommended that the kitty for the ward development fund should include money that was not spent last year.
The MCAs proposed that the Sh1.7bn fund they had proposed for wards last year but which was rejected by the controller of budgets be carried forward this year.
The health sector benefited from a budgetary increase of Sh860 million with Pumwani Maternity Hospital getting the lion’s share with Sh405 million.
The hospital has been in the spotlight with calls for more workers to be employed at the facility, which is the only referral maternity hospital in the country.
The county expects to raise Sh15.5 billion internally and get Sh13.3 billion from the government.