Housing, Urban Development & Public Works departments decry budget cuts

National Assembly’s Housing, Urban Planning and Housing Committee Chair Johana Ng'eno — National Assembly’s Housing, Urban Planning and Housing Committee Chair Johana Ng’eno

The State Department for Public Works submitted to the Departmental Committee on Housing, Urban Planning & Public Works that revision of the Department’s development budget to zero will ground the Department’s operations entirely.

Appearing before the Committee, Public Works PS Joel Arumonyang stated that the drastic cuts will force the contractors to abandon the sites due to failure by the Department to meet its financial obligations.

“This would stall ongoing projects, accumulate pending bills, increase project costs due to accumulation of interest on delayed payments in addition to possible litigations,” stated Arumonyang.

While stepping in for the PS, State Department for Housing and Urban Development, the Department’s Secretary, Said Athman disclosed to the Committee that the proposed deductions will derail completion of ongoing projects.

Notably, the Housing & Urban Development Department has faced a proposed reduction of Ksh. 2.24b in development while the Public Works Department has been reduced by Ksh. 1.2b affecting Development by 100% reduction.

The chairperson for the Committee and Emurua Dikiir MP Johana Ngeno challenged the PS for Public Works to hold a meeting with the Treasury PS to explain the importance of the Department to the country.

“You must have a communication with your counterpart in National Treasury, where budget cuts are determined. Explain that your department has always been fairly targeted by budget cuts year in year out,” said Ng’eno.

Arumonyang acknowledged the chairperson’s reservations and committed that he will further engage with National Treasury especially on the Bottom Up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA) projects.

The Committee further reminded the PS to formulate a Pedestrian Access Policy, an issue that the Committee had earlier on advised.

The Committee also recommended to the Housing and Urban Development Department to develop a central monitoring system to track ongoing projects and save on costs that would have otherwise been incurred on site visits that aim at checking project progress.

In order to enable Departments meet the obligations, the Lawmakers were asked to favourably consider additional funding for the State Departments.