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{
    "id": 1050417,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1050417/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 309,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Prof.) Ongeri",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 124,
        "legal_name": "Samson Kegeo Ongeri",
        "slug": "samson-ongeri"
    },
    "content": "The Committee examined the reports of the Auditor-General on the stated financial year. In 2014/2015 the Auditor-General reported that the pending bills for all the county governments amounted to Kshs108.9 billion, being an increase of Kshs46.1 billion from the previous financial year. I must say this has been one of our major elements of the audit query that traverses across the county governments that we have examined, not only the 20 counties listed, but also the others. You can see from the original figure pending bills went up by Kshs46.1 billion. One of the reasons the pending bills went up was because most of the bills emanated from paying huge legal fees without a clear process of procuring for legal services. Secondly, there was the under collection of revenue noticed in some of the counties and misrepresentation of own-source revenue, which affected the budgeting and implementation of the projects. The Committee noted that various counties irregularly procured goods and services through single sourcing methods, had poor record keeping, as well as failure to automate the accounting systems. In addition, Madam Temporary Speaker, most counties face challenges in operationalization of various Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS) modules as required by the law. I think there were many platforms that were being employed by county governments. We said that there was need to harmonise the use of IFMIS with the other available payment modules on the counter. There are various varieties like G-pay and many others. One of the recommendations is that the National Treasury, which is the originator of IFMIS, should employ and give capacity training to county governments, so that they can synchronise and harmonise some of these platforms being used today. Madam Temporary Speaker, the Committee further noted that during the period under review, most counties had weak human resource management. Counties recruited staff without following due recruitment procedures; failure to recruit qualified personnel; and, irregular compensation of employees, in total disregard of the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) circulars. There was serious non-remittance of statutory deductions to Government agencies such as the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF), National Social Security Fund (NSSF), Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), pension funds and financial institutions, where money was deducted from employees, but not remitted. This led county governments to be penalized through fines and accrued interest, resulting to loss of public funds The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}