By Betty Luke
Isiolo MCAs have blamed late disbursement of funds from the National Treasury for the delayed completion of ongoing projects in the county.
Led by County Assembly Budget and Appropriations Committee Chair Abdi Duba, the ward representatives insisted that the Governor Mohammed Kuti government had already channeled the county’s contribution to the ongoing mega projects and that the national government had not fully honoured the promise.
“We look forward to completing the projects soonest possible but that will depend on when the national government will release its contribution,” said Mr Duba in reference to the ongoing construction of county headquarters and modern market in Isiolo town.
The MCA, accompanied by his Oldonyiro counterpart David Lemantile, also blamed the delayed disbursement of funds for the continuous protests by the Isiolo Referral hospital’s casuals who lamented over six month salary delay.
“The county has not paid contractors for several months because we have not received monies for the months of April, May and June,” he said.
The MCAs spoke after approving a Sh5.5 billion budget for financial year 2021/2022 out of which Sh3, 373, 772, 135 went to recurrent expenditure.
Among the major spenders in the budget is Health that got Sh1.3 billion, Finance, Special Programs and Cohesion Sh979 million, Agriculture Sh665 million and County Assembly that got Sh528 million.
The MCAs said they were committed to ensure all the money was spent appropriately for the benefit of the citizens.
“We will carry out an oversight on use of the funds,” said Mr Lemantile.
