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{
    "id": 1051363,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1051363/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 245,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Shiyonga",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13181,
        "legal_name": "Masitsa Naomi Shiyonga",
        "slug": "masitsa-naomi-shiyonga"
    },
    "content": "with governors or county officials to double fund or take money that is meant to support needy students. Madam Temporary Speaker, the report also speaks to a series of county finance offices being burnt down. That could only mean that there is something fishy going on in the county finance departments and someone wants to evade audit. It is important for all the counties to account for all the funds that they have been allocated up to the last shilling. County officials in charge of finance should not resort to burning offices after they have mismanaged the funds that are allocated to counties. Burning of offices to evade accountability is illegal; it is arson. Counties need to back up their data, so that even when essential offices such as finance departments are burnt, there will be back up for all the data that may be lost in the fire. The issue of pending bills is bringing counties down. Governors should not engage their counties in unnecessary pending bills. Counties are supposed to match their expenditure to their demands. The expenditure of the counties should also match their funding so that they do not go overboard with their expenditure, leaving behind pending bills. It is very difficult for incumbent governors to take up pending bills because out- going governors leave them with unanswered questions. Madam Temporary Speaker, it is important for counties to do proper book keeping. Books of accounting are not kept well in the counties as the report has clearly shown. Auditing becomes very difficult when there are no proper documents to refer. I urge any able governor to ensure that they have professional accountants who can save documents in soft, vis-à-vis hard copies, for purposes of proper bookkeeping. We are in the e-era so any able governor should have accounting officers who can embrace electronic bookkeeping. When Hon. Charity Ngilu, the Governor of Kitui County was the Cabinet Secretary in the Ministry of Lands, she reorganized record keeping in that Ministry by changing them from hard copy to soft copy. Currently, getting records from the lands registry is a push of a button. It is important for the governors to employ learned people with relevant skills in record keeping so as not to take CPAIC round in circles when they cannot produce the relevant evidence to support audit queries. In conclusion, this report has shown that most governors lack governance and management skills. It is important that we get the right people in the office of the governor, right from the start. We should not elect people to office just because we are persuaded by party affiliations or popularity. We should elect qualified people to run our counties as governors. We should elect people with the right governance and management skills to avoid the kind of things that have been exposed by this report. Somebody like Sen. Sakaja who has served as a Member of the National Assembly and is currently the Senator for Nairobi City County is capable of being a governor. I am not saying that he has declared interest in the said position, but if he were to contest for the position of governor, he would be the right candidate because he is qualified. Some governors come from nowhere to contest for the position, just because they have money. Such people buy out voters and end up holding the position of governor without the relevant experience. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}