Kitui County Budget Review and Outlook Paper 2014

Abstract

This County Budget Review and Outlook Paper (CBROP), prepared in accordance with Public Financial Management Act, 2012 is the first to be prepared under the devolved governance structure. It presents the recent economic developments and actual fiscal performance of the FY 2013/2014 and makes comparisons to the budget appropriations for the same year. In this paper also, we show how the actual performance of the local and national economy in 2013/14 FY affected our compliance with the fiscal responsibility principles and financial objectives. The funds absorption rates for the 2013/14 FY were 17.64% and 83.5% for development and recurrent respectively leading to an average of 50.58%. A review of the 2013/14 FY performance results in various lessons which are not limited to: a) Procurement process takes time. The preparatory work necessary to be able to advertise tenders must be started before or very early in the FY to be able to implement projects within the FY. b) The Community Level Infrastructure Development Programme project implementation process is lengthy covering over twelve steps/processes. Unless the process for this programme is started within the first quarter of the FY, projects may not be implemented within the FY. c) The IFMIS system allows full commitment of LPOs. Funds committed are not available for any other project even if that project has not started unless the LPO is cancelled and de-committed. There were challenges with connectivity leading to system downtime.