On behalf of the citizens of Migori County, the civil society organizations have conducted a rapid analysis of the 2021\2022 Migori County Budget. The analysis has realized a number of discrepancies and grey areas that we flag out in this press statement. 

We hope that all interested stakeholders, state and non-state actors, media and the civil society, religious leaders and the private sector, the political class, academia, women, men, youth, PWD and all citizens will join in this message to the county to correct the anomalies now and in the future.        

We conduct this analysis to enable the stakeholders interrogate the budget easily and hold the duty bearers accountable. We also share these issues as they are critical for citizens awareness.

The IssuesThe (Public Finance Management) PFM act 2012 provides that the budget process must end latest by June 30th of each financial year.

Migori County Assembly, in sheer disregard of the rule of law have abetted this and to our understanding only approved this appropriation in August 2022.

Our question is based on which law was the county spending between July 1st and August?

• Stalled and unending multi-year Projects – The budget analysis draws our attention to the following projects County Headquarters 3000 seater modern stadium.
• Allocations for the governors/ deputy governors houses’ICU unity completion, equipping and staffingSome of these projects need a thorough verification in terms of the quality, value for money.
• Staffing for specialized equipment – Underutilization of these equipment as a result of lack of expert staff to provide the required services to the citizens have been noticed in the county referral hospital, fire-fighting equipment etc 
• Water resource management – In this sector, the budget analysis has drawn our attention to the following issues.
• Lack adequate and efficient engagement of community water management committees in the management of water systems for example boreholes are drilled without community involvementSome boreholes are reported be uncompleted. We will provide a situation list in due course 
• Nonpayment electricity bills to KPLC regularly grounding water supply to Migori town
• Non maintenance of the solar system used to distribute borehole water to the communities resulting in non-supply of clean, safe and reliable water to citizens.
• Lumpsum allocations of projects budgets without stating the specific projects where these expenditures will go such 80 million for bridge construction, 124 million for health infrastructure creates loophole for mismanagement of resources, a habit that must cease.

The budget is not sensitive neither responsive to the plight of the most vulnerable groups in the county. We note with concern that that the budget describes the intention to implement projects for this groups but there are no corresponding budget allocations for them.PWDs have no allocation SGBV programming allocation missing Does not touch anything on FGM

We therefore call upon the County government / County assembly to Ensure:

• The county government budgeting process is more professional and participatory. Access to all budget documents is the least we should be asking for 10 years into devolution.
• The county must now release authenticated and verified budget documents for public utilization.
• Ensure we have a state of the county public address by the governor which takes stock of the county priority projects 
• Ensure respective county assembly committees of water, health and education provide feedback on the state of the above outlined stalled and unending multi year projects 
• Transform service delivery in the health sector especially provision of drugs that are procured by tax payers money
• There is need to ensure that allocations for procurement of specialized equipment is followed or done along with the corresponding expert staff.
• Breakdown all lumpsum costs in the budget as a rational for program based budgetsThe respective departments need to issue a statement of intention to programme on the respective areas of SGBV, FGM and PWD

This press statement is given by the representatives of Migori County Civil Society Organizations on this 24th Day of August 2021. 

Organizations:

• CREAMO
• EACOR
• Forum for Action Sustainable Development (FASUD)
• Kenya Union for the Blind 
• Maendeleo Ya Wanawake
• Migori Bishops Accord
• Migori CLAN
• Migori County Civil Society Organizations Forum (MICOSOF)
• Migori Small Traders Association
• Rural Aids Prevention and Development Organization (RAPADO)
• Rural Farmers Research Network