The County Government of Meru has been faulted for emerging position 38 out of 47 counties in the recently released Kenya County Budget Transparency Survey for the year 2021.
The 84-page survey is contained in an annual report conducted by International Budget Partnership Kenya (IBP), a global partnership of budget analysts, community organizers, and advocates working to advance public budget systems that work for people.
IBP has a long history of working in Kenya on a wide range of budget issues, with an aim to increase public understanding of budgets, and enhance budget transparency by governments.
The 2021 survey evaluates how many key budget documents a county avails to the public, with a total of 11 key budget documents assessed.
These documents include the County Integrated Development Plan (CIDP), Annual Development Plan (ADP), Approved Programme-Based Budget (PBB), County Fiscal Strategy Paper (CFSP), County Quarterly Budget Implementation Review Report, County Budget Review and Outlook Paper (CBROP) and the Citizens Budget and Finance Act.
Nyeri County emerged position one with a CBTS Index Score of 72, followed by West Pokot and Elgeyo Marakwet Counties with 71 and 69 respectively. Turkana and Samburu Counties tied at position 4 with CBTS Index Score of 67.
At the tail end were Meru, Tharaka Nithi, Isiolo, Marsabit and Migori among other counties, having posted CBTS Index Scores of less than 15 (Grade E).
A similar report released last year revealed a persistent lack of budget transparency in Meru County, resulting in misplaced priorities, poor spending and poor delivery of services to the people. Meru County had a transparency index of 16% in the CBTS 2020 report released last year.
The report also reveals that Meru County made publicly available only two budget documents representing 18 per cent of the documents under evaluation. Some of the unpublished vital documents include the County Quarterly Budget Implementation Report, the Programme-Based Budget and the County Fiscal Strategy Paper among others.
“Previous surveys from 2016-2020 show that Meru County has never published the Citizens Budget. The County should also provide expenditure and revenue information comprehensively on the budget documents. This should also include the breakdown by sources/ categories and departments.” reads part of the recommendations by IBP.
Other counties that performed fairly well include Kirinyaga, Mandera, Nandi, Nairobi, Makueni and Kiambu, each scoring above 50 points.
While Meru has over the last six years recorded a decline in financial transparency, 24 counties made more budget documents available in 2021 compared to 2020, among them Kirinyaga, Nandi, Bomet, Mandera, and Wajir.
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