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{
    "id": 1380144,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1380144/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 324,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Osotsi",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13588,
        "legal_name": "Osotsi Godfrey Otieno",
        "slug": "osotsi-godfrey-otieno"
    },
    "content": "this task force. Then 60 days after their establishment, they are supposed to present a final report to this Senate on how they want to go about resolving this issue. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I think this is the system we have put in place to ensure that county governments will not run away, the Ministry of National Treasury and Economic Planning will do its job and all the stakeholders will be involved. I hope that if this Report is submitted to this House, within that period we will be in a position as a Senate to have started the process of dealing with this problem. The Committee has further recommended: THAT, once the report of the task force is adopted by the Senate, the Attorney- General formulates debt settlement agreements between the county entities with outstanding pension liabilities and pension schemes. The agreement shall be formulated and signed within 90 days of the adoption of the taskforce report by the Senate and shall also be signed by the Controller of Budget (CoB) and the Attorney-General as witnesses and a copy shall be submitted to the Office of the Auditor-General. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, we are putting this mechanism because we noted that, though some county governments had signed debt settlement agreements with pension schemes, they have not honoured those agreements. Therefore, we have decided that, let the Attorney-General lead this process and have the CoB and the Auditor-General involved, so that we put in place a watertight mechanism to ensure that those agreements are adhered to. The third major recommendation was that, if counties fail to settle the amount owed to the Pension Funds as agreed in the debt settlement agreement, the Retirement Benefit Authority (RBA) shall appoint the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) as a collection agent in accordance with Section 53(b) of the Retirement Benefit Tax. In this case, the first option is to ensure that counties adhere to the debt settlement agreement they will sign. If they fail to honour those agreements, then we go to the next step. We get RBA to instruct the KRA to deduct money at source. Subsequently, this recommendation further enhances the collection strategy that we are recommending to this House. The fourth recommendation is that the National Treasury shall initiate stoppage of funds in accordance with Article 225 of the Constitution and Section 96 of the Public Finance Management (PFM) Act, 2012 to counties which fail to cooperate with the task force during the reconciliation process as well as counties which fail to sign the debt settlement agreement or honour the debt settlement agreement. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, this House has an important provision in law which is Article 225 on stoppage of funds. We cannot allow this problem to go on. It is unfair to the pensioners and the Committee, if we go through the process of instituting debt settlement agreement and it does not work. If we go through the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) way and it does not work, the next thing should be to enforce Article 225 of the Constitution, which talks about stoppage of funds."
}