Socio-economic Status of Homa Bay 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). Total revenue has increased by 44 per cent from Ksh 5.86 billion in FY 2013/14 to Ksh 8.44 billion in FY 2020/21, an average annual growth rate of 6.3 per cent. The amount of equitable share to the county had similarly increased by 64 per cent from Ksh 4.12 billion to Ksh 6.74 billion over the same period. Conditional grants continue to be a major source of financing to county operations and contributed an average of 7.73 per cent between FY 2013/14 and FY 2020/21. In FY 2020/21, the County received Ksh 263.51 million and Ksh 307.85 million from National Government and Development partners respectively. The share of OSR to total revenue has been declining over the years contributing 1.43 per cent in FY 2020/21 from a high of 3.07 per cent in FY 2014/15. Development expenditure has performed weakly accounting for an average of 28.2 per cent of total county expenditure. A pattern that reveals systemic weaknesses in county public investment management system. County wage bill has been growing tremendously at the expense of development expenditure. To steer the county towards achieving its budgetary objective and development goals the county needs to mobilize more finances from OSR to increase the available revenues for budgetary operation, seek for more funding in form of grants from development partners to cater for the critical development projects in the county and ensure that the ongoing projects are completed before launching new project and clear any pending bills and arrears owed to suppliers.