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{
    "id": 1110328,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1110328/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 314,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Murkomen",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 440,
        "legal_name": "Onesimus Kipchumba Murkomen",
        "slug": "kipchumba-murkomen"
    },
    "content": "The problem is that most of the county governments are audited based on whether or not you built a big road, building or structure. How many counties are insisting that they want their Governor to ensure that they have medicine in the health centres, dispensaries and good health services in our counties? If you look at the situation at the moment--- I predicted in my submissions in the paper I prepared in 2012, that one of the dangers of devolving the health sector is the chaos that ensued at the stage of transition. I cited about five lessons learnt from Philippines. Madam Temporary Speaker, In the first five years of devolution in the Philippines, the following things happened. Allow me to quote. There was a decreased hospital occupancy and health centres utilization, which is already happening in all counties, including my own county. There was decreased procurement of drugs and medical supplies. If you go to many health centres across the country now, even the centres that used to have medicine under one centralized system of Government do not have it now. Why? It is because the mandarins at the local level do not consider procurement of medicine more important. As I said, they do not get kickbacks. They consider the procurement of other supplies that they can get kickbacks from various characters as more important as the health sector. Madam Temporary Speaker, if you look at the first five years of devolution in the Philippines, there was decreased maintenance on operating expenses of health facilities. This was because the pressure has gone to paying the big people that have come to the local level and other officers and so forth. Very little is given to the county resources. There was loss of managerial and fiscal control of hospital administration because hospitals are interfered with by local politicians. They want to see their tribal person"
}