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{
    "id": 1051377,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1051377/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 259,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Sakaja",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13131,
        "legal_name": "Johnson Arthur Sakaja",
        "slug": "johnson-arthur-sakaja"
    },
    "content": "because the whole approach of audit for us should not be to catch thieves. The focus is not really to catch thieves - because then you enter with a policing mentality - but to improve systems and to ensure accountability that makes sure that monies are used for the intended purposes they have been appropriated. Madam Temporary Speaker, we have had many issues. If you look at these reports, for instance, investigations are going on regarding the Dandora Stadium. There is the issue of Nairobi Water and Sewerage Company and many sectors in the City. I hope that we can continue to strengthen systems. I even want to suggest that through the Senate Business Committee (SBC) or the Rules and Procedures Committee (RPC), and through the Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC) we create a Senate Audit Office (SAO). The Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) does a good job. I can see the Chairman of the Committee on Finance and Budget is here and he will tell you the kind of support that he gets from that office. On top of what the PBO does, a Parliamentary Audit Office will help us achieve a few things. First, we will not be morticians to do postmortems of a body that died years ago by looking at 2014 audits or audits of many years after which the governor has gone and things have moved on. We will be able to do real time audits on budget implementation and get the quarterly exchequer releases from the Controller of Budget (CoB). Even as that is happening, you will be able to get real time analysis and input on what is going on in your county. That equips you, as a Senator, so that your work is not just to go into history. For instance, right now, I should not be looking at the accounts of former Governor Kidero. I should be able to see what this county government is currently doing, because it has no governor for now, and what NMS is doing today because it must also be accountable to this House. A Senate Audit Office will help us be on schedule and to do real time audits. That is extremely important. Madam Temporary Speaker, we in the Committee on Labour and Social Welfare have asked ourselves how we can address the wage bill in our counties. This is because some counties, 75 per cent of their revenue is on recurrent expenditure. Of that recurrent expenditure, a huge portion of it is on staff. How do we streamline that? Madam Temporary Speaker, we proposed a Bill on County Public Service Boards, but we want to refine it. This is because when you go to a county, you find there are three categories of staff. You will find there are staff who were seconded from the national Government when the functions were being transferred. They are on their own schemes of service. Their pension is different through the superannuation scheme in the national level. You find staff who had been in the councils already and staff who the governor employed. I am not saying there is a problem with that. So, you find three people doing the same exact work under three different regimes, three different schemes of service and different salaries. Even the motivation to work cannot be there because why would you be paid twice or half of what I am being paid for doing the same job? The legacy of this Twelfth Senate must be on how to sort out that labour issue. That is why we are proposing a National Labour Summit this year after the Devolution Conference. This is because at the Devolution Conference, we might only speak for one 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."
}