Kenya Local Government Budget rules: fiscal responsibility or an aide to corruption?
- Kenya has since 2012 embarked on one of the most substantial decentralization process in Africa. This has involved establishing a quasi-federal system with 47 counties which have substantial resources and functions. The reform process and subsequent decentralization has been and remains a highly politicised process. This is all clearly elaborated in Cheeseman et al. (2016) paper which also documents the conflicts over resources at the local level; this is a complex story with many actors that seems to produce a process where the political incentives (and corruption) are to support a robust decentralised system.
- As part of the decentralization reform process there had been a concern over the composition of County budgets. This has been enshrined in Section 118 of the Public Finance Act which has two requirements that the county budget should a) have a minimum 35% devoted to development expenditure and b) that the wage bill should not exceed 35% as a maximum of development expenditure. These are very unusual rules in international terms and are almost unique to Kenya.
- The main aim of this paper is to explore the impact of these conditions on the formulation of county budgets. Preliminary research from the FY 2015/16 and FY 2016/17 shows that a significant number (about a third) of Counties are outside the criteria for both development expenditure (below the minimum) and for the wage bill (above the maximum). The paper through key interviews with stakeholders and a series of county case studies will see to understand whether this reform comes from a good governance discourse or from an attempt to institutionalise interests concerned with local patronage and corruption. The suggestion is that the latter has provided cover for the former development.
Reference:
We-A50 Politics of Development 10-P-002
Presenter/s:
Philip Amis
Presentation type:
Panel
Room:
Muirhead – Lecture Theatre – G15
Date:
Wednesday, 12 September
Time:
15:45 - 16:00
Session times:
15:30 - 17:00