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{
    "id": 1291296,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1291296/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 206,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Mandago",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13577,
        "legal_name": "Kiplagat Jackson Mandago",
        "slug": "kiplagat-jackson-mandago"
    },
    "content": "kilometres with no good road. Today, as we speak, we have ward hospitals in all the 30 wards of Turkana County. Therefore, I urge my colleagues that whenever we visit counties, seeing a structure or visiting a place is not sufficient to make conclusions and cast aspersions on county performance until we get proper documentation and the report of the Auditor- General. These funds need equity and proper protection. As we pass these additional allocations, we have successful programmes at county levels that are donor-driven, for example, the Kenya Urban Support programme and Kenya Informal Settlement Improvement programmes. As a Senate, we shall need to further ring-fence these funds for particular activities. Since these are additional allocations, we do not expect that these funds will be used for recurrent expenses that are not related to the development budget. This is because there is a general misconception in terms of accounting that all the funds in counties classified as recurrent expenditure are wasteful. That is why I have always called for the Kenya Accounting Standards Board (KASB) to review the classification of Government accounts in this country. This is because there are recurrent expenditures that are development in nature. For example, funds for running a county, the procurement of non-pharmaceutical drugs, training and fuel for county-owned machines for grading a road, are all treated as recurrent expenditure. However, that is not wasteful expenditure. That is why there is need for reclassification. As these funds go down to counties, we need to make them specific. They should not be used for any recurrent expenditure that is not development-related. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, when we do that, we shall realize quicker development and more services to the citizens of our counties. This will be tailor-made to answer specific problems that counties are going through. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, if you go to the Kenya Urban Support Program (KUSP), you will see that most urban centres’ and county headquarters’ roads in this country were greatly improved when KUSP was running. That money was strictly designed for improvement of infrastructure around county headquarters and major urban centres. As I contribute to this Motion, my County, Uasin Gishu will be receiving an additional one billion shillings. We would want to see an increase in service delivery following this new allocation. The additional allocation confirms that there are still more resources at the national Government level that are meant for devolved functions, but are still held by the national Government. Mr. Temporary Speaker, this is one route the Senate can take to make sure that we increase allocation to counties, even for functions that are shared or concurrent between counties and national governments. As we continue with these additional allocations, we shall also review other funds that had been set aside under these conditional allocations. For example, I believe that counties are yet to get value for money for the managed equipment that was paid for. I want to be on record and say that those"
}