The Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA) visited Vihiga County to oversee the management of funds and flagship projects initiated by the national government. The Mikah Cheserem led commission aim to visit all counties across the country so as to assess whether devolution was working.
He said there are projects that were initiated by the county governments and it’s the mandate of the Commission to visit and inspect those projects to determine how counties have been using the funds disbursed by the national government.
The Chairman said devolution has brought in many opportunities since its inception, adding that Kenyans have many expectations when it comes to changes that can be made by devolution. “We have done a research and everyone says devolution has worked well for the last three years,’’ said Cheserem.
He said counties have improved on the issue of completing their projects at stipulated time as compared to the projects funded and managed by the national government. “Our aim is to see if the funds we have disbursed to counties are well utilized to benefit the local mwananchi,” he said.
The commission’s aim is to discover challenges that the health, infrastructure, and agriculture sectors face in all counties and what can be done to improve on service delivery. Cheserem said the Vihiga County health sector has improved generally, after visiting the health facility to check on its facelift.
He advised the health department to ensure early procurement of drugs to avoid shortage the facility has been experiencing most of the time. “I have been impressed by the health facility which has modern equipment as compared to other facilities in other counties,’’ he said.
The chair said they would offer advice on financial matters after their inspection during their two day visit to the county. He added that besides the health sector being a key element in their research, other notable key projects the commission is set to oversee are in agricultural sector, street lighting, market structures, garbage collection and water provision.
