The County Government of Busia targets to spend shs. 8.787 billion during the 2024/ 2025 financial year.
Speaking during a public participation forum for the draft estimates and Medium term expenditure framework held at Bungengi Primary school on Friday, Busia County CEC Member for Treasury and Economic planning Topista Wanyama said that the County expects to receive shs. 7.587 million from the National government as equitable share and shs 647 million from its local revenue collection.
“We expect to get shs. 552.51 million from loans and conditional grants,’ she said. Within the budget estimate, the department of health services and sanitation received 27% of the total budgetary allocation translating to shs. 2.4 billion.
Agriculture department and the County Assembly came second getting 11% each translating to shs. 982,807,051 and 962,253,010 respectively. Whereas, the Education sector came third, bagging 10% of the budget translating to shs. 859,584,017.
However, Busia County Health Administration officer Ali Atemba noted that the budget for the sector has been reduced from shs. 2.7 billion during the 2023/2024 financial year to shs. 2.4 billion for the 2024/2025 fiscal year.
Atemba who presented the budget estimates for the health sector argued that the shs. 1.682 million allocated for employee compensation is very little adding that it should be increased to shs. 2.2 billion.
The chairman of Busia County Budget and Economic Forum Stephen Odhiambo said that allocation of shs. 100 million for bursaries need to revise upwards.
Odhiambo noted that there was no budgetary allocation on gender and very little to support the youth.
“I have not seen any allocation for the monitoring and evaluation function,” he said, adding that no reference has been made on audit function.
He at the same time noted that there was no allocation of funds for the mid-term review of the CIDP and the year 2024/2025.
‘We have seen very little allocated to the department of irrigation yet we need to move from rain fed agriculture to irrigation,” he said.
The official further suggested that commodity supplies in the health sector should be given more money.
He also stated that the shs. 64,076,677 allocated for the department of strategic partnership and the digital economy was inadequate.
‘This is also the department that should take care of the sustainable development goals yet nothing is provided for it,’ he said adding that there was a need to integrate SDGs in the county’s planning.
Participants who spoke at the forum urged the county leadership to prioritize completion of ongoing projects before embarking on new ones.
They also underscored the need for the County leadership to avail the necessary budget documents in good time so that they can read and understand before they give in their views.
By Salome Alwanda
