Earlier this month, news broke that Nakuru County under the leadership of governor Susan Kihika had seen a significant drop in revenue collection, in an unexplained manner.
The news was widely reported that Nakuru’s revenue collection had dropped from Sh3.6 billion in 2021/2022 financial year, to a partly Sh1.6 billion in the 2022/2023 financial year, a drop of Sh2 billion.
This massive drop was not explained in any of the media reports, and was first mentioned by Senate Liaison Committee Chair, Senator Mohammed Chute. “The revenue has decreased to Ksh.2.6 million. If this is for a full year. then this is a very serious matter.” he said.
He went on to accuse Nakuru MCAs of neglecting their oversight duties.
The figure came from the Controller of Budget Dr. Margaret Nyakang’o, who has been very vocal on matters government revenues and expenditures.
However, none of the media houses reporting the figure interrogated the numbers, with the statement being reported as fact.
It has now emerged that although Nakuru did report a revenue drop, the figure was nowhere close to the 2 billion announced.
In a letter sent to the Controller of Budget by the Nakuru Governor, it has now emerged that the true revenue collection for Nakuru for the financial year 2022/2023 stood at Sh3.145 billion.
This represented a drop of about Sh115 million from the previous year’s collection, which actually stood at Sh3.26 billion. The Sh3.6 billion mentioned was actually the target not the actuals.
The controller of budget has now issued a correction and apology, stating that in her tabulation, she omitted over Sh1.06 billion, of which that only represented 9 months collection and not the 12 months as widely reported.
“This was an error as the computation did not include the Facility Improvement Fund of Ksh 1,063,820,417.05. We apologize for the omission and misrepresentation.” she writes in her reply to Nakuru’s CEC Finance and Economic Planning.
The accurate drop in revenue collection therefore is about 3.2% rather than the 55% reported.
