The Meru County government has continued to withhold vital budget information from the public against the Public Finance Management laws, a recent survey has shown.
According to the County Budget Transparency Survey (CBTS) 2024 by Bajeti Hub, budget documents produced by the Meru County government did not incorporate input from public participation forums.
“Meru county provided no information on public participation in the County Fiscal Strategy Paper, Annual Development Plan, and approved Programme Based Budget, which was evaluated.”
Meru County was ranked 27 out of 47 counties with 65 points out of 100.
West Pokot, Makueni, Busia, Nakuru and Wajir were ranked top in budget transparency in the survey conducted by Bajeti Hub.
On the other hand, Marsabit, Isiolo, Migori, Embu and Trans Nzoia had the least number of budget documents and information made accessible to the public.
Bajeti Hub, formerly International Budget Partnership Kenya, is a non-profit organisation focusing on transparency and accountability in Kenya’s budgeting processes.
The organization has been conducting County Budget Transparency Survey’s over the years rating counties based on availability of information on budget making process as set out in the Public Finance Management (PFM) Act.
According to the law, counties are required to produce, publish and publicize 10 budget documents including County Integrated Development Plan (CIDP), Annual Development Plan (ADP), County Budget Review and Outlook paper (CBROP), and County Fiscal Strategy Paper (CFSP).
Others are Programme Based Budget, Citizens Budget, the Finance Act, and four County Quarterly Budget Implementation Reports.
While the Meru County government provided 9 out of 10 documents, the survey identified several gaps leading to a low ranking.
The Survey established that Meru County has never prepared a Citizens Budget, which is a product of public participation forums.
“The county has never published its Citizens budget in the history of the survey.The county provides no details on expenditure performance information in its CFSP and completely lacks revenue information.” The survey states.
The Meru County Finance Act also lacks information on how tax payments are to be made and who is authorized to collect such payments.
“Additionally, the Annual Development Plan lacked any details on revenue broken down by source…” It states.
Bajeti Hub Executive Director Abraham Rugo however said counties have recorded progress in budget transparency over the years.
The survey indicates that about 84 percent of county budget documents are currently available to the public.
He said Bajeti Hub was on the forefront to localize the public participation guidelines at the county level.
“Disclosure of information on public participation continues to present a challenge, as this remains the least provided information, scoring only 12 out of 100 points in CBTS 2024, a slight decrease from 13 points in CBTS 2023. This has been a trend since CBTS 2020, as there has been little to no progress…” Said Dr Rugo.
Citizen Budgets, Approved Programme-Based Budgets, and Finance Acts are the least publicized and the least comprehensive budget documents in the devolved units.
