Nairobi county assembly to close doors as cash crunch bites
The County Assembly may become the second in the country, in just one week, to shut down operations for running out of money.
On Monday, Bomet Deputy Governor Stephen Mutai asked the Assembly to borrow funds, after it became apparent they were in trouble, having depleted the Sh265 million allocated for this financial year.
SUSPEND BUSINESS
On Wednesday Nairobi County Assembly Speaker Alex Ole Magelo warned that House business will have to be suspended due to lack of money.
Mr Magelo told the Assembly that committee work will soon be halted, visits, workshops and benchmarking will be scrapped and salaries delayed if nothing was done.
The Executive only gave out Sh70 million this month out of the Sh169 million agreed upon, he said.
The Assembly needed Sh61 million for salaries and Sh108 million for operations.
Mr Magelo added that County Executive officials snubbed a meeting with County Assembly Service Board on Wednesday, prompting him to send summons to the County Secretary Lillian Ndegwa and Finance Executive Gregory Mwakanongo.
MONEY WIRED
Mr Mwakanongo, however, stated that Sh50 million had been wired on Wednesday to forestall any crisis.
He added that he would appear before the board tomorrow after receiving the summons.
This is not the first time the Assembly has faced cash-flow crisis.
In February 25 this year, Mr Magelo told the Assembly that they had no money to travel abroad after Roysambu Ward Representative Peter Warutere asked why allowances for trips had not be been availed.
Assembly Clerk Jacob Ngwele wrote to the Auditor-General over the matter after efforts to get the money from the Executive proved futile.
County Assemblies Forum led by Mr Nur Nassir Abdi, has also asked the Senate to compel the Controller of Budget to release money to each county according to their budgets and not the ceilings set by the Commission for Revenue Allocation.