1Citation
These Regulations may be cited as the Public Finance Management (County Governments) Regulations.
Public Finance Management (County Governments) Regulations — subsidiary to Chapters 11 & 12
These Regulations may be cited as the Public Finance Management (County Governments) Regulations.
In these Regulations, unless the context otherwise requires—
"Act" means the Public Finance Management Act (Cap. 412A);
"Accountant-General" means the officer of the National Treasury designated as the Accountant-General;
"Accounting Standards Board" has the meaning assigned to it under section 2 of the Act;
"Accounting Unit" means organizational division in a government entity responsible for accounting and financial services;
"appointing authority" means—
"Appropriation-in-Aid" means any revenue which a county government entity receives and is approved by Parliament for application by that entity to finance its activities;
"Appropriation Act" has the meaning as assigned to it under section 2 of the Act;
"budget ceilings" means the maximum amount that the county government allocates in a given year to target sector or expenditure category;
"Budget Circular" means a written instruction issued by the Cabinet Secretary providing broad guidelines on the budget process of the national government or means written instruction issued by the County Executive Committee Member for Finance providing broad guidelines on the budget process of the county government;
"benefit deduction" means a deduction on a payroll system against an official's salary for a debt arising from employment benefits;
"basic salary" means an officer's salary excluding allowances;
"Cabinet Secretary" means the Cabinet Secretary, for the time being responsible for matters relating to the National Treasury;
"Cash flow statement" means a financial statement that shows planned inflow and outflow of resources over a period covering the financial year in line with the activity level;
"chief officer" has the same meaning assigned to it under section 2 of the Act;
"collector of revenue" has the meaning assigned to it under section 2 of the Act;
"collective agreement deduction" means a deduction on a government payroll system against an official's salary arising from a collective agreement between the government and a union and is registered in accordance with applicable law;
"Contingencies Fund" has the meaning assigned to it under section 2 of the Act;
"Corporate governance" is the process and structure used to direct and manage business affairs of the county government entities towards enhancing prosperity and good governance with the ultimate objective of realizing national long-term value while taking into account the interest of all stakeholders;
"County Allocation of Revenue Bill" means the Bill annually introduced into Parliament and enacted under Article 218(b) of the Constitution;
"county corporation" has the same meaning assigned to it under section 2 of the Act;
"County Emergencies Fund" has the same meaning assigned to it under section 2 of the Act;
"County Executive Committee" has the same meaning assigned to it in the County Government Act;
"County Executive Committee Member" has the same meaning assigned to it under section 2 of the Act;
"county government entity" has the same meaning assigned to it under section 2 of the Act;
"County Public Debt" has the same meaning as assigned to it under section 2 of the Act;
"County Revenue Fund Services" means a service the expense of which is charged directly against and payable from the County Revenue Fund under or by virtue;
of an Act of Parliament or any Act of County Assembly, other than an Appropriation Act;
"debt" means an amount of money owed and already payable by an official to any person and for the purposes of these Regulations, includes insurance premiums deducted in terms of policies with long and short-term insurers;
"deduction code" means a code issued by the Accountant- General to enable a person to deduct money from an individual paid via the government payroll system;
"discretionary deduction" means a deduction on the government payroll system against an official's salary, other than benefit, collective agreement, state or statutory deductions;
"disposal" in relation to a capital asset, includes—
"Division of Revenue Bill" means the Bill annually introduced into Parliament and enacted under Article 218(a) of the Constitution;
"donation" has the meaning assigned to it under section 138 of the Act;
"economy" means minimizing the cost of resources used or required to achieve priority objectives;
"effectiveness" means the extent to which a programme intervention has attained, or is expected to attain, its objectives efficiently in a sustainable manner;
"efficiency" means a measure of how economically resources or inputs (including fund, expertise and time) are converted to results;
"estimates of expenditure" means—
"fair market value" in relation to a capital asset, means the value at which a knowledgeable willing buyer would buy and a knowledgeable willing seller would sell the capital asset in an arm's length transaction;
"financial statements" has the meaning assigned to it under section 2 of the Act;
"financial year" means the period of twelve months ending on the 30th June in each year;
"governing body" means a body of persons managing a public entity and includes a commission, a board of trustees, a board of directors and a management board;
"grant" has the meaning assigned to it under sections 47 and 138 of the Act;
"grant recipient" has the meaning assigned to it under sections 47 and 138 of the Act;
"intended beneficiaries" has the meaning assigned to it under section 47 and 138 of the Act;
"internal control" means a set of systems to ensure that financial and other records are accurate, reliable, complete and ensure adherence to the management policies of the Ministry, department or other agency of Government, for the orderly and efficient conduct of the Ministry, department or agency, and the proper recording and safeguarding of its assets and resources;
"irregular expenditure" means expenditure, other than unauthorised expenditure, incurred in contravention of or that is not in accordance with a requirement of any relevant legislation, including—
"medium term" has the meaning assigned to it under section 2 of the Act;
"national government entity" has the meaning assigned to it under section 2 of the Act;
"Principal Secretary" has the meaning assigned to under section 2 of the Act;
"public debt" has the meaning assigned to it under Article 214(2) of the Constitution;
"public money" has the meaning assigned to it under section 2 of the Act;
"public officer" has the meaning assigned to it in under Article 260 of the Constitution;
"programme" means a group of independent, but closely-related, activities designed to achieve a common outcome;
"receiver of revenue" has the meaning assigned to it under section 2 of the Act;
"regulatory agency" means a national government entity established by an Act of Parliament to ensure compliance with the provisions of the Act that established it;
"revenue" has the meaning assigned to it under the Commission on Revenue Allocation Act (Cap. 428);
"revised estimates" refers to the supplementary budget estimates and approved budget reallocations prepared and submitted under section 43 of the Act;
"spending unit" refers to a government component for which appropriation is allocated within the budget and which is authorized to spend;
"sinking fund" means an account or pot of money or securities set aside to pay for a bond, repurchase or early redemption of Treasury Bonds;
"standing committee" means the Public Finance Management Standing Committee established under regulation 18 of these Regulations;
"statutory appropriation" means the authority to spend money allocated to the executive in accordance with the purposes specified in the Constitution or an Act of Parliament;
"statutory deduction" means a deduction on government payroll system against a public officer's salary, which is required or permitted by a law, court order or arbitration award;
"subscription statement" is a statement showing the investor's holdings as registered on the Central Depository Securities (CDS) Register at the Central Bank of Kenya;
"supplementary budget estimates" means additional request of funds by the county government to County Assembly;
"third party" has the meaning assigned to it under section 47 and 138 of the Act;
"unutilized balances" means any amounts withdrawn from the Consolidated Fund and Appropriation-in-Aid collections for purposes of provision of basic services under an Appropriations Act and not expended at the end of the financial year;
"unathourised expenditure" means—
"value for money" means the economic, efficient and effective utilization of resources;
"vote"has the meaning assigned to it under section 2 of the Act;
"vote-on-account" means a special provision by which the county government obtains the authority of the County Assembly for a sum sufficient to incur expenditure on various items for a part of the year, pending the consideration and approval of budget estimates for that year; and;
"wasteful expenditure" has the meaning assigned to under section 2 of the Act.;
[L.N. 230/2015, r. 3.]
These Regulations shall apply to—
The object and purpose of these Regulations is—
The Accounting Officers shall ensure that all public officers under their control have access to copies of these Regulations and the public officers shall ensure they are fully conversant with the contents of the Regulations.
(1) Subject to national security considerations, the public shall be provided with full access to financial information in a timely manner for purposes of seeking public input by—
(2) The County Treasuries shall arrange for effective public participation during the development of their annual budget estimates including the publication of citizens' budgets which shall explain and summarize the budget proposals.
(3) The dates for the sectoral forums and the venues shall be publicly announced one week in advance, and an annual calendar of events released at the start of the financial year.
(1) For purposes of public participation in the planning and budgeting process, there shall be participatory structures and processes that shall encompass abroad range of strategies including—
(2) The County Executive Committee Member shall notify the general public through a notice in the gazette or at least two newspapers of county wide circulation on the venue or manner of submitting written submissions.
(3) The documents submitted to County Assembly and any other published documents shall be published and publicized within 7 days of presentation.
(4) The County Executive Committee Member shall give a responsibility statement confirming the extent to which general public was consulted particularly on the County Strategy Paper and Sector Working Groups.
(1) The Kenyan shilling shall be the unit of account for drawing up and implementing the county budgets, presenting and reporting accounts.
(2) Despite the provisions of paragraph (1), certain operations may be carried out in international currencies subject to conditions laid down in these Regulations or other financial instruments.
(1) County Treasury shall Publish financial manuals and forms which may be used by county government entities to support implementation of these Regulations.
(2) The financial manuals and forms, issued in accordance with these Regulations shall facilitate adoption of international standards and emerging best practices.
(3) The publications under paragraph (1) shall be made with the approval of the County Executive Committee Member.
(4) The financial manuals shall contain relevant procedures for the budget preparation, budget execution, keeping of books of accounts, formats of financial statements and Government standard chart of accounts issued by the National Treasury.
The responsibilities of internal and external auditors exercised in accordance with the Constitution, the Act and other legislation shall not diminish the Accounting Officers’ responsibility to maintain financial discipline as required by the Act and these Regulations.
The accountability of a public officer vacating an office shall not be completed until the financial and accounting records kept by him or her have been property handed over in writing to an officer taking over his duties and attested by their supervisor: Provided that this does not preclude the public officer from handing over any other documents required under any other law or government Policy.
(1) Any county public officer signing any document or record pertaining to a financial transaction shall ensure that the signature is given in such a manner so as to preclude subsequent alteration or addition to the information contained in such document or record.
(2) The signature of any county public officer shall mot he binding on an Accounting Officer or a public officer performing a financial function unless a specimen of the signature is duly communicated in advance to the relevant county public officer or any other person performing a financial function.
(3) If a county public officer no longer occupies a public office, the Accounting Officer shall nullify that officer's specimen signature and communicate the same to all relevant county public officers or any other person performing a financial function within a reasonable time.
(1) In no circumstances shall a county public officer sign a blank or incomplete cheque, record or other document, pertaining to a financial transaction.
(2) It is the duty of any county public officer signing any document or record pertaining to a financial transaction to read and satisfy himself or herself that it is proper to give his or her signature and his or her signature shall be evidence of acceptance of responsibility for the document, whether the public officer read it or not.
(3) The signing of a document contrary to paragraphs (1) and (2) shall constitute an offence under the Act.
No county public officer except the Governor shall use green ink or green pencil in recording or transacting any official financial transaction.
No county public officer other than the County Executive Committee Member, the County Assembly Clerk, the Chief Officer, the County Head of Internal Audit Services or Head of Internal Audit shall use brown ink or brown pencil in recording or transacting any official financial transaction. [L.N. 230/2015, r. 4.]
(1) Financial records and documents shall be written in indelible ink.
(2) An entry in a financial record or document shall nor he obliterated, erased or altered by being written over.
(3) Payment in connection with any document hearing an alteration, obliteration or erasure shall be refused by the relevant public officer or any other person unless countersigned, but this shall not apply to a cheque and official receipt.
(4) A person who contravenes paragraphs (1), (2) or (3) commits an offence under the Act.
7 questions based on Part I – PRELIMINARY. Test your understanding before moving to the next part.