Kitui County Budget Review and Outlook Paper 2015

Abstract

This County Budget Review and Outlook Paper (CBROP), prepared in accordance with Public Financial Management Act, 2012 is the second to be prepared by the County Government of Kitui under the devolved governance structure. It presents the recent economic developments and actual fiscal performance of the FY 2014/2015 and makes comparisons to the budget appropriations for the same year. It provides updated MTEF financial forecasts and how these projections deviated from estimates contained in the last County Fiscal Strategy Paper (CFSP) released in February 2014, actual budget 2014/15. In this paper also, we show how the actual performance of the local and national economy in 2014/15 FY affected our compliance with the fiscal responsibility principles and financial objectives as detailed in CFSP 2014. Though the County is moving along with the National Government in implementing a raft strategies and reforms geared towards accelerated economic growth, serious challenges have been inadequate human capacity to harness the full potential of some these reforms. A case in point is the changing terrain in the budgeting process (from itemised to program based budgeting) that has roped in the use of the Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS), which is presenting a new face of challenges right from planning to implementation. The need to address the local challenges such as poverty has led the county to put in place policies and programs necessary to tackle the problem. However, such policies that include local contracting have also resulted into low absorption of funds as the contractors lack the financial capacity to fund the projects awarded to them.