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{
    "id": 1075773,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1075773/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 369,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Olekina",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 407,
        "legal_name": "Ledama Olekina",
        "slug": "ledama-olekina"
    },
    "content": "These concerns should not be carried forward because we must have solutions now. We must ask ourselves tough questions if indeed they do not have money yet this House passed that money should be sent to the counties, where is it? This County Allocation of Revenue Bill (CARB) is now dividing Kshs370 billion which sounds good but in reality, if the Government is not able to raise that money, what do we do? Of course, there is nothing we can do right now. We are barred by our Senate resolutions which is entrenched in the Constitution. However, to be realistic, we have to become more creative. I would have hoped to see more recommendations on how counties can continue collecting more own source revenue so that in the event that the shareable revenue is not disbursed on time, they can continue paying their salaries. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, it is sad when you hear that a lot of staff in the county governments have not received their salaries. I know it happens to us as well. It happened to our staff. However, we must have solutions to these problems. We cannot be raising them up as if they are concerns and we do not do anything about it. This issue of remittance is something that bothers me a lot. It is about time that one arm of government talks to another arm of government because it also affects us in this office as Senators. If we or our predecessors did not remit to the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), we end up collecting more penalties and interest. Since we are having a challenge now sending money to counties, we need to amend the Income Tax Act and the Public Finance Management (PFM) Act such that there should be no more penalties that will accrue on money that has not been remitted by the county assemblies. I would hope that it is not just their desire not to remit money, but it is because they have not received any money from Treasury. These deductions end up being good on paper but it affects people when they retire. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, when you look at the ceiling of these county assemblies, for the last two financial years they have remained constant, nothing has increased. So, there is no way you are going to tell me that if there is any annual increment in terms of salaries it will be effected, there is no money."
}