The County Executive for Finance and Economic Planning, Dr Michael Eregae has assured residents of Turkana that the County Government is on the right track.

Dr. Eregae said this while officiating the review meeting on the progress report presented by the Directors in the Department of Economic Planning.

He was responding to reports published in the local dailies on the Controller of Budget’s quarter-one report that alleges some County Governments including Turkana did not spend any money on development.

The Finance Executive said one of the main reasons why Turkana County Government had been alleged to spend low expenditure on development is because Turkana County initiated a supplementary budget in the first quarter of July-September 2023, and the processes of the budget were completed beginning the second quarter.

During the period, Dr Eregae said, on supplementary budget preparation, only critical expenditures like payment of salaries and utilities were allowable. And so generally, there was minimal spending until and when the supplementary budget processes were concluded.

Dr Eregae affirmed it was difficult to achieve any development expenditure during the period unless projects initiated in the previous year(s) and budgeted in the current year were completed in the first quarter of the year, and paid in that period.

CECM for Finance indicated that could be the case for the majority of those few counties that have reported nil development expenditure in their first quarter of spending this year as per the Office of the Controller of Budget report.

He added that the county government aligns all the procurement processes to the law. The complexity of these processes therefore sometimes slows down the uptake of development expenditure.

Despite all these challenges, he announced that from October 2023, up to date, the County Treasury has paid bills amounting to over Ksh. 300 million from the development funds.

He also took the opportunity to laud his staff in the Department of Economic Planning but categorical to the budget team for their dedication in ensuring our budget was among of the first counties to be approved and uploaded to the system.

The County Executive has assured the residents of the government’s commitment to ensuring all the pending bills owed to the county are fully paid once the funds are available.

The Chief Officer for Economic Planning, Samuel Ekale urged the team of Directors in the Department to constitute a team responsible for resource mobilization internally, so that it will have enough resources to support the activities, without relying on the county’s budget entirely.

On the budget, Simon Wangilla who represented the Directorate said, the office would embark on the Supplementary II budget preparation, once they resume in January 2024.

Further, he said, the County Fiscal Strategy Paper (CFSP) would be ready in February 2024 after the Annual Development Plan (ADP) was approved by the Turkana County Assembly in December 2023.

He added that they already have a robust plan to improve citizen accountability and transparency in the budgeting process.

Through citizen resources centers constructed by the Department, The Director for ICT and E-government, Isaac Eregae, said they would soon develop ICT digital villages at the Wards and Villages level.

He added that he would liaise with partners to support the development of digital skills for youth hence, placement for digital Jobs.

The Ag. The director for Economic Planning who heads the County Planning Unit said is happy to report the development of County Integrated Plan III (CIDP) is ready for launch in January next year.

Lokwar notified the colleagues in the Department that the construction of the Kanamekemer Fresh Produce and Agricultural Training Centres in Naotin are complete and waiting for the launch and operationalization in January 2024.

On monitoring and evaluation Directorate, John Ekaru pointed out they have reviewed and finalized County Indicator for CIDP III Michael Ekusi (Chief Accountant), Fred Muya (Senior Procurement) and Mona Ateyo (Senior HR) presented their progress reports.

The Department’s Director of Administration, Evaristus Lokidap moderated the sessions. All the 75 staff in the Economic Planning were present during the review meeting.