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{
    "id": 1165084,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1165084/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 332,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Sakaja",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13131,
        "legal_name": "Johnson Arthur Sakaja",
        "slug": "johnson-arthur-sakaja"
    },
    "content": "Madam Deputy Speaker, initially when I heard this Statement being read out, I was waiting to hear the resolution of the Committee on Finance and Budget. Ideally, this is a Statement that would have been caused by a Member asking what is happening and the Committee to give us answers. It is true and really shocking that Kshs72 billion due to county governments has not been disbursed. We take a long process here to agree on the equitable share for counties, we haggle about the formula, counties do their budgets, but not paying the money creates a huge problem. My county of Nairobi has a huge problem. As of the last Exchequer release record, which was end of November, out of a budget of Kshs39.6 billion, we had only received Kshs7 billion. That is half a year. In January, because that is the last time there was disbursement, only 6 per cent of the development budget was given to Nairobi. With half a year left, how do you expect absorption of another 94 per cent of that budget? Hurried expenditure towards the end of a financial year is what creates loopholes for corruption and accounting officers not entering into contracts properly. That creates a vicious cycle. Madam Deputy Speaker, we passed in this House a Bill that I together with Sen. Farhiya sponsored. That is The Prompt Payment Bill and many business people and suppliers are happy about it. Many times, we put pressure on county governments. I remember there was a time the same Cabinet Secretary (CS) said that counties with pending bills should not receive the allocation, yet the reason counties cannot pay is because they have not received Exchequer releases. Today, Nairobi City County operations ground to a halt. The workers locked the Governors’ Office because of lack of disbursement. I saw the budget line for lifts in City Hall Annex. You will find sick people, the elderly and pregnant women walking up and down 16 floors. They do not have sanitary facilities because of the delays. We have put in that law that an accounting officer who enters into a contract without a requisite budget and fails to pay within 90 days takes personal culpability. However, this must also relate to the National Treasury. If the National Treasury has not sent money, how does a county government pay the suppliers? The other one is the issue of statutory deductions and salaries. In fact, for the first time, salaries in Nairobi City County have delayed and that is bad."
}