Financial crisis looms as Webuye Municipal fails to qualify for LATF fund

Written by Rosemary Wachiye 2011-06-24 18:25:00 Read 108 Times

(L)Deputy Mayor Timothy Karandini and the Webuye Municipal council, Mayor Mr. John Ngome.

Webuye Municipal Council is facing a financial crisis after it failed to qualify for Local Authority Transfer Fund (LATF) in last year’s and this financial year’s budget owing to the fact that it owes the government over Sh 70 million in debt.

The Webuye Municipal council, Mayor Mr. John Ngome, told the press that the Municipal council could not meet the set deadline of May 31^ST of paying off the debts it owed the government.

“The council did not manage to meet the set deadline to pay off the debts hence could not qualify for the LATF funding,” said Mr. Ngome.

Last year, the council expected to receive Sh 29 Million while this year it expected to receive Sh.41 Million, a fund that would pay the municipal workers and enable the council to carry out diverse developments in Webuye town.

“Right now we have arrears of over Sh70 million that the government is supposed to give this council,” said Mr. Ngome.

Webuye Municipal is among other nine councils country wide that have not received the LATF funding this financial year though it is the only council in Western Province.

 “The pay for our workers comes from LATF, we don’t know what will happen soon, since the council is facing a hard financial time, the projects we had started are stalled because we lack funds,” said Mr.Ngome.

The efforts by the Municipal Council to get a loan of Sh 50Million, to be able to offset its withstanding debts, were however not successful as they did not produce a letter from the treasury extending the  deadline for paying off the debt.

He blamed this financial crisis to the closure of Pan Paper Mills which was the backbone of the town in providing employment opportunities to the residents and taxes for the council. He also added that the council currently was depending on collections from the market and bus park whish are not enough to sustain the projects and pay the workers.

Mr.Ngome called upon the government to look into the matter and ensure that the council together with the other affected councils gets the funding to enable them to be sustained.

“We urge the government to give grants to assist the council as pan paper mills is down, so that the grants can enable the council to run smoothly,” said Mr.Ngom

Read more: http://westfm.co.ke/index-page-news-bid-2628.htm#ixzz1QGmkRrb0
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives