By Agnetta Okwemba
Kwale county government has been lauded for taking the lead in the transparency survey in the country.
The survey according to Institute of public finance Kwale county topped the list with a grade A being the first one for any county to achieve since the survey began.
Miriam Wanjiku, the IFP official said that the survey focuses on the availability of 11 key documents, how comprehensive they are with all information available for the public as prescribed in the public finance management act.
Speaking to Coast Times Digital on the sidelines of a two days engagement forum with communities of practice looking at the county’s financial performance over the past 9 months in Kwale, Wanjiku said that the survey showed how the county has been transparent to its citizens.
She said that the transparency survey is a survey led by the International Budget Partnership called the County Budget Transparency.
The meeting also focused on the implementation reports that is the county’s own source revenue and expenditure that includes recurrent and development pending bills.
The Institute works to promote the principles of Public Finance that is public participation, accountability and transparency.
Wanjiku disclosed that reports show that just like other counties, Kwale is experiencing over-reliance on equitable share from the national government.
“The contribution to the county own source revenue is very minimal. According to the reports, Kwale’s own source revenue has been declining in the last three years that we have looked at,” she said.
She noted that Kwale has so much potential and that it is for the national government to maximize on that since the equitable share has delays from the National Treasury so that services are not interrupted.
She said that revenue loopholes are part of the reason for the decline of own source revenue that can be worked on for future improvement.
“I hope that the good performance from the transparency survey will go on and eventually progress into service delivery where citizens can feel the impact of what the budgets are doing for them at the lowest level in the County,” she noted.
…..additional report by Alloys Musyoka
