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{
    "id": 1098343,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1098343/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 161,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Dr.) Ochillo-Ayacko",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Government creates a preference and inclination for the National Treasury to be only sensitive on matters that affect the National Government only. Currently, the National Treasury does not act with alacrity on matters that affect county governments. People are suffering in the counties that they live in and where they expect to be served from. The surest way of killing devolution is to fund county activities in a manner that is not intermittent or regular. The National Treasury is currently funding the activities of the counties in a manner that is guess work. Madam Deputy Speaker, as beautiful as the resolution we are about to pass is, will require an enforcement mechanism so that we do not pass such resolutions in vain. Together with my Committee of County Public Accounts and Investment Committee (CPAIC), I have had the privilege of looking at the audited accounts. There are three issues that never go away. The issues relate squarely to poor or late disbursement of funds. The first one is called budgetary performance. It does appear that the late disbursement of funds to these counties contribute to very poor budgetary performance. Counties are unable to absorb funds that are allocated for recurrent activities because the funds are not there. Counties are unable to absorb and utilize funds that are allocated for development activities because the funds are never disbursed. When the financial year is closed on 30th June, you will find that the counties, in their books, still report that they have not received the funds and the Auditor-General records that there was poor absorption of funds. That is an issue that is squarely blamable on the National Treasury but the sufferers are the public who should be the recipient of services that have to the procured using the cash that is never disbursed. Senators keep lamenting about this issue but I think that we need to equip ourselves better to deal with this issue. If we do not deal with this issue, devolution will remain a mirage. Devolution will not give joy or cure a litany of issues and aliments that afflict citizens in our counties. Madam Deputy Speaker, the second issue that is a common occurrence in the Auditor-General’s report is the issue on stalled projects. You will find that every county, including my own, Migori County, claiming that projects that they started in any particular financial year at its closure are stalling to the extent of 90 per cent of those projects. The county governments attribute such stalling to late or poor disbursements of funds. They reckon that the contractors have to get out of site, sue them, activities have to come to a stop because funds have stalled. The projects that are initiated are the ones that the people in the counties expect to benefit from or utilize during the course of that financial year. The issue of stalled projects is justifiably attributed to the late disbursement of funds. As we continue to allow the National Treasury to fail to disburse funds, we are going to stall as a nation, people and counties. If we all stall, it will have devastating and far reaching consequences that are better arrested as soon as possible. Sometimes, the National Government callously says that there are no funds to disburse. However, I do not think that is the situation. The penchant with which we borrow expensive loans from unknown sources and faceless organizations is worrying. I do not which entities benefit from the borrowed monies and why they are borrowed in the first place. We continue to borrow but the actual activities which require prioritization when it comes to funding are"
}