Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 1380167,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1380167/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 347,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Olekina",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 407,
        "legal_name": "Ledama Olekina",
        "slug": "ledama-olekina"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, we need to have foresight on how we deal with these issues. If today, some of the Kenyan civil servants who have given their life and worked so hard for this country retire, they would spend half of their remaining time in this life going to the pension funds to collect their retirement benefits and they will be told there is no money because county governments have not remitted the money. There are certain recommendations that we gave here. Some of them unfortunately, I was not here on the last day, I did not agree with them. This is because of the limitations of the law. Article 225 of the Constitution is very complex, where it says a Cabinet Secretary (CS) may stop the transfer of funds to county governments. That is conditional and will only last for 60 days. After 60 days, that stoppage ends there. We need to be proactive. We need to ensure that we amend the Public Finance Management (PFM) Act, and we have an opportunity to do so. We look at Article 228 of the Constitution on the powers of the Controller of Budget. That Article 228 of the Constitution is interpreted differently based on where it sits. We know the problem and fiscal indiscipline in our counties where they requisition money and they do not pay what it is intended to do. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I support Recommendation No.8 where we talked about the National Treasury setting up a task force. We went to Mombasa and met with the CS for National Treasury and Economic Planning at around 6.30 p.m. to discuss this issue. We agreed to go to Mombasa and call all these accounting officers. I believe the most important things and one of the best recommendations that we ever came up with is the one that forces these accounting officers. We look at the PFM Act and make it a personal responsibility that if money is diverted, the people who are going to face the consequences are not the governors. This is because we already decided that any governor who is brought before this House will be sent home. Article 179 of the Constitution is clear. He is the Head of the Executive authority of that county. We need to amend the---"
}