Controller of Budget bans Issuance of Bursaries by County Governments

The Controller of Budget (CoB) Margaret Nyakang’o has banned the issuance of bursaries  by county governments.

Nyakang’o, in a communication to all County Executive Committee Members (CECMs) of Finance, said any requisition for withdrawal of funds to perform functions under the national government must be accompanied by intergovernmental agreement.

According to Dr Nyakang’o, county governments are supporting projects that belong to national government without ensuring that agreement between them and national government is in place.

Nyakang’o in her circular argued that for counties to provide bursaries to students, it must have an agreement between them and the national government of the transfer of such function.

She reminded counties that the Fourth Schedule of the Constitution distributes function between the national government and county government which designates universities, tertiary education institutions, primary schools, secondary schools and special education as functions of national government.

“Conversely part two of the Fourth schedule under Section 9 assigns pre-primary education, village polytechnics, homecraft centres and childcare facilities to county governments,” said Nyakang’o in the circular.

She further argued that, there is a need to transfer the function in accordance with Article 187 of the Constitution.

“For a county government to offer educational support towards functions classified under part one of the Fourth Schedule, there must be transfer of the function according to the Constitution,” she said.

Some county governments are irregularly supporting learners in secondary schools, Tvets, universities while others like Nairobi under Johnson Sakaja have irregularly introduced school meals programme .