In Summary;
- Exchequer release
- Wangamati’s impeachment
- Speaker’s impeachment
- Supplementary and Main budget delays
Exchequer release;
Bungoma Governor Wycliffe Wangamati is no stranger to controversies especially in line with adhering to the laid down rules and/or the Constitution. Following the ongoing impeachment process against him by a section of MCAs, the actuary made some quick calculations of what he had in the County basket only to discover that the 711 million he received from the National Treasury for the month of April wasn’t enough for his budgetary plans. He therefore decided to cripple the “hostile” Assembly operations by instructing the Chief Officer Finance Mrs. Dinah Waswa not to recommend Assembly’s monthly exchequer request for the Controller of Budget’s approval as a way of making MCAs desperate for pay and therefore succumb to his demands to kill his impeachment push
Sources say the Controller of budget Dr. Margaret Nyakang’o therefore only received recommendations for 390 million being salaries for the Executive leaving out that of the Assembly. This raised eyebrows prompting her to demand for answers from the County Executive only to be told the reason for omitting the Assembly’s share was to have the funds utilized to fill the huge deficit at the executive with a view of sorting out the Assembly after the next release.
Unknown to Wangamati, the Controller of Budget had gotten wind of the push and pull pitting the Executive and Assembly over the embattled Governor’s impeachment and therefore refused to approve half recommendations/requests demanding that both recommendations be tabled for her prompt action. By midday of Thursday 3 may 2021 the recommendations for the County Assembly salaries and allowances had not been posted
Procedures of requesting and approving exchequer releases;
- The Clerk who’s the Assembly’s accounting officer prepares a work plan which is submitted to the desk of the Chief Officer Finance for action
- The Chief Officer Finance recommends and forwards the requisition to the County Coordinator of Budget.
- The County Coordinator of Budget recommends and forwards the requisition to the Controller of Budget for approval
- The Controller of Budget approves allowing Central Bank to wire cash to respective accounts i.e. Executive or Assembly
Supplementary and Main budget delays;
With all this happening, The County assembly of Bungoma received the 2nd Supplementary budget last week weeks to the deadline for passing the main budget. Wangamati in his usual clandestine ways expects the Assembly to pass the supplementary budget without following due process, an expectation that has been turned down by the Assembly.
The main budget whose deadline is 22 days away… has not been presented to the Assembly by the Executive
Wangamati has also diverted Kshs. 100million meant for completion of the new Assembly offices on top of ensuring the legislative arm of government has no salaries and allowance… This is inviting a full blown war between the Executive and Assembly starting Tuesday, 8 June 2021.
Speaker’s impeachment;
On the impeachment motion against Speaker Emmanuel Situma, ikuweikuwe.com has leant that; The pro-Wangamati wing is planning to ouster the Speaker via an impeachment motion upon return to business next week. Wangamati got a boost when he joined hands with MMI a pro-Ruto movement which added him a few crucial numbers. Impeaching Speaker Situma might nevertheless turn out to be an uphill task since the motion has to be approved by 15 House Business Committee members whose chair is the Speaker. The Committee as currently constituted is unfriendly to the Governor save for the following members: Honorables Chemion, Mwambu, Machani, Sudi and Chebet
The pro-Speaker’s wing which enjoys more numbers has laughed off any such attempt
Inviting the Senate:
Following this development, the Assembly is in the process of tabling a case at the Senate accusing Wangamati and other Departmental officials of abuse of office and misuse of power by denying the Assembly its rightful share from the exchequer. On its priority list is demand to remain totally independent off the Executive in terms of operations to avoids attempts to arm-twist MCAs into dancing to Executive’s tunes especially when its unconstitutional.
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#iKUWEiKUWE was unable to get comments from the Finance office
