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{
"id": 1232784,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1232784/?format=api",
"text_counter": 205,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Cheruiyot",
"speaker_title": "The Senate Majority Leader",
"speaker": {
"id": 13165,
"legal_name": "Aaron Kipkirui Cheruiyot",
"slug": "aaron-cheruiyot"
},
"content": "are looking for people to blame, please do not include us. In as much as there is a lot they could do better, they are really trying in very difficult economic situation. People forget that the largest taxpayer is the Government. When Government is not doing well, then, do not expect your revenues to do any better. If Government is not spending, paying its suppliers because they are restrained, or do not have the resources to spend, then, you find yourself in the kind of situation or mess that we are in. However, I am glad that as we discuss this, I saw that our colleagues in the counterpart House have already passed the Supplementary Budget. Many of the State agencies are now beginning to spend. The same can be seen in revenue targets. The KRA has issued a further alert indicating they are on course to raise in excess of Kshs2 trillion. Of course, a lot of it as we all know, in excess of Kshs1 trillion, will go back to fund debt. That will be an extremely difficult situation to find ourselves in. Mr. Speaker, Sir, eventually, when they are done with putting in place a new administration, since I know they are recruiting a new Commissioner-General and so many things that are being done to ensure that as a revenue authority, they raise the necessary resources for us to share with our county governments. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I appreciate that many colleague Senators that have spoken to this matter have insisted and implored on each other on the need to ensure that there is better use of resources at various levels of county governments. There are two things I want to say: First, I challenge colleague Senators that after all is said and done, once we have passed the Division of Revenue Bill and the County Allocation of Revenue Bill, we should have discussions. Senators are akin to board chairpersons and governors are like Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) running the institution. We oversight. We may not be involved in the day-to-day operations, but we see how the entities that we superintend perform. How can we possibly sit as the Senate of the Republic of Kenya and be comfortable that monies devolved to county governments, in excess of 70 per cent and 80 per cent in sub-counties, are consumed under recurrent expenditure. It leaves little amounts to do actual development, yet we have passed the Public Finance Management Regulations. Mr. Speaker, Sir, we know what the statutory requirement is. However, not a single county government is compliant with the provisions of Public Finance Management Act, with regard to the division between recurrent and development expenditure. We need to sit down and pass a resolution as a House. We must demand each governor to stop giving us excuses and file a recovery plan with this House. They need to tell us that their recurrent is at 80 per cent but in the next two or three financial years, the finance and planning department has assured them that if we stop recruiting, put a freeze on salaries and reduced on unnecessary expenditures, we will be on course. That is why if you check through the current formula that was passed for division of resources, there is 1 percent of these funds that is enjoyed--- Let me put it better for Members to understand, as a compilation of all the factors that inform what goes to a specific county like population, poverty index and health"
}