Photo/FILE "Admittedly this sequence leaves a tight time frame for Parliament to turn around the legislation,” CIC chairman Charles Nyachae
By ALPHONCE SHIUNDU ashiundu@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Sunday, August 14 2011 at 22:00
Posted Sunday, August 14 2011 at 22:00
IN SUMMARY
- Battle for control of funds between Uhuru and Mudavadi holds up Bill’s publication
A vicious battle for control of funds under the devolved government system is behind the delay in publication of a critical Bill on the sharing and management of resources between the national government and the 47 county governments.
The row pits Deputy Prime Minister Musalia Mudavadi against Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta. Each wants his version of the Public Financial Management Bill approved by the body charged with effecting the new law.
The tug-of-war
The chairman of the Commission for the Implementation of the Constitution, Mr Charles Nyachae, has said that if the row persists, his team will go ahead and harmonise the two versions of the Bill — one from the Treasury and the other from the Taskforce on Devolved Government — with a view to submitting an amalgamated version for publication.
On Sunday, Mr Nyachae blamed the tug-of-war between Treasury and the taskforce on “deep-seated policy and political differences... We cannot solve that; they (the Executive) have to resolve it. From where we sit, we need a harmonised Bill from the Executive to work on,” he said.
An earlier dispatch from CIC said a team of researchers and commissioners was poring over the Bill to ensure it is published on August 22 and tabled in Parliament for approval and enactment.
“Admittedly this sequence leaves a tight time frame for Parliament to turn around the legislation. In the circumstances of the Executive delay, however, this is inevitable,” Mr Nyachae said in regard to the August 26 deadline.
Positions between the Treasury and the taskforce seem to be hardening each passing day to an extent that President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga have now agreed to step in and deal with the matter at a meeting on Monday.
Treasury wants its version of the Public Financial Management Bill tabled in Parliament, but the taskforce insists its version of the Bill and two others — the County Governments Financial Management Bill and the Intergovernmental Fiscal Relations Bill — should be published and enacted.
Mr Nyachae said the two Bills are not a problem because what has a deadline for next Friday is the one on Public Finance Management.
“If they bring two Bills to deal with the same thing, we don’t mind. What matters is the content of the Bills (and how they hem in with the Constitution),” he said.
Daily Nation has seen correspondence between Treasury and the taskforce chaired by Mr Mutakha Kangu, and has also spoken to key people familiar with the wrangle, and it is evident that the tussle is unlikely to abate.
Mr Kangu told Treasury PS Joseph Kinyua that the Treasury version had “numerous glaring mistakes, content gaps, plagiarism, conceptualization flaws”.
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