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{
    "id": 1012551,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1012551/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 230,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Makueni, WDM-K",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Daniel Maanzo",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2197,
        "legal_name": "Daniel Kitonga Maanzo",
        "slug": "daniel-kitonga-maanzo"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Speaker for giving me the opportunity to contribute to this very important Bill. I want to congratulate Hon. Kanini Kega and the Budget and Appropriations Committee for moving very swiftly. Kenyans have waited for this Bill to pass for quite some time. What has been happening in the counties should never happen again in this era of devolution. Devolution is a very good concept and it seems not to have been implemented well so far. I believe there are Members of this Assembly who aspire to become governors. Since they are used to dealing very well with the NG- CDF, maybe there will be a change and people will see a difference and development happening on the ground. When it comes to the money allocated to counties, definitely, development has quite a lower amount compared to expenditure. I believe in future we should look at a balance, so that development receives more allocation than money spent by counties to run their activities. One of the biggest questions that has not been addressed all this time is the revenue collected in the counties. We are aware revenue is collected every day. Most probably there lacks a mechanism to ensure that whatever mama mboga pays reaches the county coffers and becomes part of the revenue collected. Administratively, counties could have a pay bill number. I believe if they streamline their method of collection, a lot more money will be realised. There must be a way of ensuring that this money is appropriated, either through the county assemblies or what we are doing now. In most occasions, this money cannot be accounted for. It is known to exist, but does not form part of the revenue we appropriate. Therefore, there is a missing gap that needs to be addressed quickly and especially even if it means amendment of the laws like the Public Finance Management Act to ensure the amounts of money are known and used. For employees of the county government to go for three months without a salary is absurd. Some counties borrow not only for salaries, but for other expenditures. Definitely, for commercial banks, there will be interest which is not budgeted for. This is a missing gap which in future needs to be addressed by law, so that borrowing is guided and controlled by law. If it is just allowed anyhow, then they can borrow even to pay pending bills where there are pressures or they have been taken to court. It is a concern. The other matter is the conditional grants. It is true they have done a few activities. Most of those activities have not been completed or utilised. That is money which also needs to be audited. Kenyans have to get value for it because some of these conditional grants or even some of the grants given to the counties by donors form part of what we appropriate and what we budget. The moment it is not audited and cannot be ascertained, it raises a lot of issues. It also begs the question as to what the money we appropriate for development does since development has not been seen anywhere. Any roads and repairs in towns are done by KeRRA. The Government is doing quite a number of other projects within towns. For example, in Wote Town, KeRRA has done six kilometres of tarmac in Makueni Constituency, but there is no way Kenyans can know that. Most of the time, governors claim to have undertaken projects that have been done by donors and other Government agencies, and the people think that their money has been used properly. With those remarks, I beg to support."
}