Kirinyaga County Governor Anne Waiguru has rejected the amendments made by MCAs to the second supplementary budget that is meant to accommodate funds for Covid-19 management.
The governor said that the back and forth by the MCAs to allocate more resources to themselves is an unfortunate stance.
The supplementary budget was meant to allocate Sh20 million for Covid-19 mitigation measures in the county.
But the MCAs refused to pass the budget and instead re-allocated Sh100 million meant for the Kerugoya Hospital Complex and another Sh30 million for fuel.
The county chief accused the MCAs of re-allocating the hospital and road equipment fuel funds to their ward-based projects.
Ms. Waiguru said the Assembly’s amendments are impractical since the funds that were originally factored in this financial year’s budget had been significantly absorbed, therefore, reallocation is impractical and illegal.
She said that the Assembly’s demand to see the balances themselves were just delayed tactics which have dealt a big blow to the fight against Covid-19 in the county.
“We had presented the supplementary two budget to accommodate funds to help in the management of Covi9-19 but now the MCAs have become a stumbling block by introducing amendments in the budget to allocate more funds to themselves,” Ms. Waiguru.
The governor said the money reallocated from the hospital project will hamper the delivery of universal health care to the county residents while removal of Sh30 million fuel will delay rehabilitation of roads.
Although the county does not currently have Covid-19 cases, delay in passing the budget may put many lives at risk should there be an outbreak of the disease in the county.
Ms. Waiguru said the Covid-19 funds are for the procurement of medical and non-medical equipment as well as the expansion of isolation facilities.
The governor termed as unfortunate attempts by the ward representatives to impeach some of her Cabinet ministers.
