Socio-Economic Status of Vihiga County with COVID-19

Abstract

The County’s main revenue sources comprise of the transfers from the National Government, Conditional Grants, and its own source revenue (OSR). Budget execution as measured by absorption rate has largely remained above 60 per cent over the review period. Average overall absorption rate stands at 72.4 per cent. Average development budget absorption rate stands at 51.0 per cent while that of recurrent expenditure stands at 84.5 per cent. Pending bills have been declining over the review period but remain high with average development related pending bills accounting for 53.6 per cent of pending bills. County wage bill has been growing tremendously at the expense of development expenditure. Between fiscal years 2013/14 and 2020/21 county wage bill was on an upward trend and on average accounted for 46.0 per cent of expenditure, while development expenditure has been plummeting on average accounting for 25.6 of total county spending. Priority expenditure has been on non-administrative and non-coordinational functions such as health, education, agriculture, roads etc., accounting for an average of 59.9 per cent of actual expenditure. Health sector leads at 25.4 per cent. Administrative and coordinational functions such as county executive, county assembly, public service management and finance account for 40.1 per cent of expenditure. There is need to mobilize more finances from OSR to increase the available revenues for budgetary operations. Seek for more funding in form of grants from development partners to cater for the critical development projects in the county. Ensure that the ongoing projects are completed before launching new project and clear any pending bills and arrears owed to suppliers.