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Your worship the mayor, cllr. Geoffrey majiwa, your worship the deputy mayor cllr. George aladwa, fellow councillors, town clerk, city council of nairobi, mr. Phillip kisia, chief officers, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, we feel indeed honored that you have taken your time once again to join us on this auspicious occasion of our budget presentation.
Your worship, i am privileged to stand before this council to present to you and the stake holders of the city of nairobi, the approved budget for fy 2010/2011. As you are all aware, this practice has now taken root in all local authorities. It enhances transparency in budgeting as well as keeping all stakeholders aware of the plans that the council has for the next financial year. My wish is that more participation shall be experienced from all stakeholders especially in the capital projects planning process. We have continued to improve on all areas under our jurisdiction in order to make the city a safe place for all residents. More so we endeavor to make it a preferred economic hub which will attract both local and foreign investments. Your worship, Nairobi is the face of our beautiful country and therefore we cannot tire in providing an enabling environment so that we can continue to record increased economic growth and employment. We have therefore continued to align our strategies in line with vision 2030. We continue to uphold the key pillars of vision 2030 that is economic, social and political development. We have also continued to uphold the millennium development goals through allocations to poverty eradication programmes, such as primary education and healthcare. Your worship, the global economic crisis is already over and the country has began to record significant growth .we cannot therefore be left behind and therefore as a council we are taking advantage of this by contributing on our part to the gross domestic product through our interaction with various players to support the informal sector. We have positioned ourselves to provide a level playing ground and improve doing business in the city by reducing unnecessary bottlenecks that hamper investments. In line with this we have managed to reduce the period of issuance of business permits from several days to only one day. This has been made possible through the introduction of programes such as rapid results initiatives aimed at improving service delivery. Your worship, the interaction with our clients however has not grown with technology and as such we still use the old methods of revenue collection. This has left us highly inefficient. To guard against this in future and in order to have an efficient revenue collection system, the council is drafting an e payment strategy which will allow for a close and softened touch with the clients. Your worship, in order to improve the management of finances, the council is currently formulating the ICT and financial management strategy. The implementation of this will be done in the FY 2010/2011. Your worship, in the fiscal year 2009/2010, the council presented a budget of kshs. 10billion, made up of kshs. 6.8b from local sources and kshs. 2.74b of government transfers. However, the council has continues to record significant growth under your stewardship and the watchful eye of the town clerk. To this end, the council undertook the following capital projects: 1. Street and public lighting – kshs. 41.2m 2. Road construction and routine maintenance – kshs. 862.5m 3. Rehabilitation of health centers – kshs. 8.8m 4. Rehabilitation of schools – kshs. 39.8m 5. Rehabilitation of social halls and markets – kshs. 38.9m 6. Traffic signals – kshs. 27m These projects are just but a few that the council undertook in the financial year 2009/2010. Your worship, as clearly indicated above, you will recall that during the year under review, we committed to undertake various measures aimed at stimulating growth with substantial allocations in the following areas: (i) Environmental management (ii) Road safety (iii) Education (iv) Road infrastructure (v) Security (vi) Debt resolution In the spirit of transparency and accountability of the council, it is imperative that I present the key achievements and challenges of the financial year 2009/2010. Environmental management In the year under review, the council set out to improve environmental management through sustained garbage collection mechanism. The council contracted private garbage collectors to supplement the council’s collection capacity. This has been a challenge since in the year under review we spent over kshs. 160m on the same. In addition, the council has been providing litter bins in the CBD. The council has ensured that all the garbage trucks available are always motorable. However, the main challenge is the dandora dumping site. The council is working closely with jica in trying to find a long term solution in solid waste management. Health Your worship the council has continued to support the health centers through staffing, rehabilitation of the premises as well as equipping them with required drugs and equipments. The total cost incurred in this sector was kshs. 651.7m which include pumwani maternity. Road safety To improve on this, the council has maintained an aggressive programme of road marking, provision of road signs, rehabilitation of non motorized facilities, pedestrian crossings, and rehabilitation of traffic signals etc. Some of the challenges facing this achievement are, motorists not obeying traffic signals and pedestrian crossings. Besides the city inspectorate who are stationed on these spots to enforce the by laws, we would also appeal to the residents to always observe road safety matters. Education With the introduction of the free primary education, the school enrolment drastically increased, thereby posing serious strain to the few available spaces. To this end, the council has continued to invest substantially by expanding education facilities. In this financial year the council constructed more than 100 classrooms in various schools at a cost of kshs. 39.8m. In addition the council has continued to provide the schools with support staff to ease the burden on the parents. Road infrastructure In the year under review, the council continued to improve the road network through tarmarcking, gravelling and rehabilitation of roads within its jurisdiction to a tune of kshs. 862.5m. such roads include elgeyo marakwet, huruma road, tassia access road etc. This will continue in the coming year as well. Security In order to boost security the council has been engaging in an extensive programme to increase the area under street lights. In the current year the council completed in areas such as mabatini, choka village, ole dume road, muhoho avenue, outering road among others. To improve security in the slum areas the council has been installing high mast lights in several other places. However the electricity bill has also grown with the increased investment in street lighting. Debt resolution Your worship, the major challenge in the implementation of the current year’s budget was the heavy debts incurred by the council over the years. In this case the debt resolution stood at kshs. 2.12b besides having cleared all the retirees’ dues of about kshs. 300m within this financial year. We do commend both of your for that. Whereas the council is seeking about kshs. 5b from the other sources to clear all the outstanding statutory, legal and general creditors, as per the ministerial directive, the government still owes us huge amounts of money. It is therefore necessary to demand that, the government pays all amount owed to the council in form of cilor totaling to kshs. 1.57b, and also that all the parastatals pay the council a total of kshs. 1.60b, that they owe us. It will also be worth noting that, the council has started to take all the necessary legal steps to collect all the outstanding amount of kshs. 14.86b in terms of rates from the defaulters. The council has in the last two months taken 300 rate defaulters to court and we expect to realise a significat perscentage out of the kshs. 14.86b owed through the court process. There is no provision for waiver in the next financial year and near future. Your worship, in any future discussions revolving around the water company, it must be kept in mind that, there is a loan of kshs. 21b for water infrastructure that must be carried as a liability by the water company. May i further appeal to the town clerk, that as a custodian of all the council assets and properties, you must ensure all assets are intact and safe and if need be, you must leave them better than you found them. The budget summary for the fy 2009/10 Item description Approved Actual Budget to date 2009/2010 2009/2010 (kshs billion) (kshs. Billion) A. Revenue 1. Internal sources - rates 2.0 1.8 - business permits 1.0 0.87 - parking fees 1.2 1.0 - other 2.8 2.2 Total 7.02 5.87 2. External sources - latf 1.96 1.96 -rmlf 0.88 0.72 -cilor 0.1 0.1 -------- ------- Total revenue 9.97 8.61 B. Expenditures - Recurrent expenditure 6.94 5.94 - Capital expenditure 1.30 1.0 - Debt resolution 1.70 1.8 - Total expenditure 9.94 8.74 Exp. Surplus/deficit 0.03 (0.13) The shortfall was occasioned by the high level debt repayment in line with latf requirements. Budget strategy for fy 2010/2011 Your worship, let me now go to the budget strategy for the financial year 2010/2011. The theme of the budget is accelerated infrastructure development for sustainable growth. The budget has been prepared in conformity with various ministerial guidelines, and the council’s strategic plan. During this speech i will be highlighting some of the major areas that the council intends to spend more money in order to stimulate growth in the economy. The total resource envelope for 2010/2011 budget amounts to kshs.12.26b of which kshs. 3.2b (26.2%) will be received from the central government and kshs. 9.06 b (79.8%) will be from local sources. The main sources of local revenue to finance the budget will be as follows: Land rates 2.5b Business permits 1.30b Parking fee 1.36b Other revenues 3.80b Total local revenues 9.0b Receipt from central government Latf 2.23b Fuel levy 0.88b Cilor 0.1b Total extn. Revenue 3.21b Total revenues 12.21b Expenditure will be as follows: Recurrent expenses 7.7b Capital expenditures 2.5b Debt resolutions 1.8b Total expenditure 12.0b Your worship let me now turn to the budget priorities for the 2010/2011 The budget priorities for the year 2010/2011 have been aligned with the council’s strategic plan and the realization of the vision 2030 and they are as follows: (i) Improvement of road infrastructure (ii) Development of city’s master plan (iii) Rehabilitation of health centers. (iv) Expansion of education facilities (v) Road safely (vi) Environmental management Improvement of road infrastructure Your worship, the roads act 2007 placed the mandate of roads rehabilitation and maintenance within all urban areas to kenya urban road authority. This means the council undertakes the works of road rehabilitation on behalf of kura. However, the council will not shy away from the task that road maintenance and rehabilitations is such a mammoth task that even kura cannot make with the meager resources available from the government. In recognition of this fact, the council during the financial year 2010/2011 has allocated kshs. 1.3billion for rehabilitation and construction of various roads. The council will in addition buy equipments worth kshs. 18 million to help in road works. Development of city’s master plan This city has operated without a master plan for many years. This has led to many uncoordinated developments in the city without necessary infrastructure to support such developments. In recognition of this council has allocated kshs. 30million in the budget 2010/2011 for master plan development. Environmental management Besides upgrading of access roads to the dandora dumpsite and installation of lights, the council in the year 2010/2011 has set aside kshs. 104 million to buy more garbage trucks and wheel loaders in order to help keep the city clean. Education Improving access to education is an important step towards achievement of the millennium development goal and vision 2030. Towards this end, the council has continued to invest heavily in expansion of learning facilities, in the current financial year the council has allocated kshs. 77 million to rehabilitate and expand the schools. The council is also partnering with the german and korean government to improve learning facilities in the slum areas. In addition to development of schools, the council has allocated kshs. 56m as bursary for all the wards. This is meant to help needy students within the city and these funds shall be accessed through the ward elected councilors. Health centres In order to sustain the provision of health services in the city, the council has allocated kshs. 163.5m for provision of drugs and rehabilitation of various health facilities. In addition, pumwani maternity hospital has been allocated kshs. 30m for its running. Information technology To manage our resources better, the council has to embrace the latest information technology. To achieve this, the council is undertaking a finance and ict strategy. The council has therefore set aside kshs. 32m for its implementation. Disaster management In disaster responsiveness the council has set aside kshs. 116 m to buy fire fighting equipment. Security On security, the council wants to make the city more secure by allocating kshs. 131 million for street lighting and high mast lighting. Human resourse management Human resource development remains an important area where the council needs to invest a lot of funds. These funds have been allocated for staff trainings which have proven to be very productive in their part. Besides training, the council will spend more funds on staff rationalization. As you are all aware the department, has embarked on rigorous staff auditing, which will save the council more than kshs. 5m per month on the interim. To this end the council will put aside kshs. 40m for staff rationalization. Your worship, in order to reduce on repairs and maintenance of obsolete motor vehicles, the council has set aside kshs. 73million to replace the old fleet. In social infrastructure development, the council takes cognizance of the need to provide social amenities, such as social halls, sports stadiums etc. Since they play a major role in the overall societal development. The council has continued to invest in these facilities over the years. In the coming year the council has allocated kshs. 21m for the rehabilitation and operation cost of various social recreation and welfare centers such as mji wa huruma, bahati welfare centre, waithaka technical centre etc. Your worship, in order to realize our budget objectives, we need to collect all revenue that are due to the council. This therefore calls for the redoubling of our efforts in revenue collection. Your worship, i wish to appeal to the residents of this city to pay their rates and debts promptly to avoid costly enforcement procedure which consumes a sizeable amount of the same revenue intended to provide services. As stated earlier in this speech the council will vigorously take legal actions in the collection of rates and doesn’t expect to give any waiver in the next financial year. Your worship, the implementation of this budget shall be guided by the service charter. The charter defines the council’s responsibilities and the customer expectations from the council. However, in view of the dwindling revenue base of the council, there is need for the central government to enhance transfers to the council. Finally, your worship, i wish to extend my sincere gratitude to the councilors and members of staff for their commitments to duty in rendering services to the residents in the ending financial year, let us all unite to make the budget for the financial year 2010/2011 a resounding success. Thank you and may god bless you. Your worship, i now beg to move. Cllr. Michael o. Ogada Chairman finance committee NB: DOWNLOAD THE BUDGET ON THE DOWNLOADS PAGE
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