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{
"id": 1126933,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1126933/?format=api",
"text_counter": 412,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Funyula, ODM",
"speaker_title": "Hon. (Dr.) Wilberforce Oundo",
"speaker": {
"id": 13331,
"legal_name": "Wilberforce Ojiambo Oundo",
"slug": "wilberforce-ojiambo-oundo-2"
},
"content": "curious one is that the agreement must be approved by respective county assemblies within 14 days. We wonder whether they are 14 sitting days or 14 calendar days. That needs to be clarified. The most curious part is that it will be subjected to public participation after it has been approved. I wonder which comes first. Is it public participation before approval or approval then public participation? Then, public participation will just be a façade or a charade because a decision will already have been made. The main omission in this Bill is the lack of accountability. The amendments being proposed by the Senate provide no room for accountability. These are national Government funds, which are allocated by this House, that is, the National Assembly. Making no provisions whatsoever for a way to account for these funds is setting an extremely dangerous precedent. County governments will enter into agreements which they have no intentions to enforce, and misuse the funds! As Hon. Wangwe has said, there are many cases in this country where funds are devolved to county governments, but because of political differences or future political considerations, the funds are only spent or utilised in one particular constituency or sub-county to fulfil certain political goals. One of the obvious things we will have to do is to amend to require that there must be some form of accountability to the national Government even as they account to the Senate. Yes, there is a provision to submit reports to the Controller of Budget, but the Controller of Budget only deals with matters during disbursement and not how the funds are used. What happens where the Government has guaranteed loans from various places yet the funds are misused or not applied for what was provided for in the agreement? So, there must be a provision for review or monitoring and evaluation to confirm that the funds have been utilised. There must be an arrangement in place. As I conclude in support of the Bill, of course, subject to amendments later, I wish to state two things: the main intention, when serious political leaders in this country fought for devolution, was to make devolved units the engine of development. If you do a simple rundown, you will realise that has not been achieved. We have pumped billions and billions of money into devolved units but what you see on the ground is something different. As they say, things are different on the ground. Therefore, as we continue to improve the disbursement and management of funds, we must put in mind what value for money there is. Are Kenyans getting value for money, or will it be in the best interest of the national Government, instead of giving these funds as conditional grants, to use our line ministries to implement specific projects that affect or benefit the people that it is supposed to benefit? It is the same way we have done with the National Government Constituency Development Fund (NG-CDF). If you go to many constituencies, the projects and works of the NG-CDF stand out very clear and outshine the works of county governments yet county governments get colossal sums of money. Secondly, as we give conditional grants and disburse loans received, it is important and a must that the county governments also up their game and literally collect internal revenues. There is so much pilferage and loss in the various cesses and levies they are allowed to collect. It was never meant that county governments would solely depend on the national Government to fund their activities and their programmes. Many a times we hear that county government staff have gone without pay. If you meet and ask them what they do with the collections they get from markets, cattle dips, mortuaries and the rest, they simple say, “We do not know where that money goes. This is where the Senate should have trained its eyes and spend all its time, that is, policing, supervising and oversighting county governments instead of wasting time doing things such as trying to fight the National Assembly when they have no powers at all to fight it. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}