Entry Instance

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

{
    "id": 1408724,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1408724/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 172,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Lomenen",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2940,
        "legal_name": "James Lomenen Ekomwa",
        "slug": "james-lomenen-ekomwa"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, for this opportunity. I stand to support this Bill from the Committee on Finance and Budget. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, the Senate is not the problem. We always allocate funds to the counties, but the problem is with the counties. One of the problems in the counties is on the value for money. I was formerly a member of the National Assembly and I was supervising the National Government Constituencies Development Fund (NG- CDF). We found that building a NG-CDF class was worth Kshs2 million. However, the cost of a class in the county is almost Kshs4 million or Kshs5 million. You wonder whether the funds that comes from the NG-CDF are the same as those from the county governments. So, funds are misused. I think the Chairpersons for the Public Investment and Special Funds Committee (CPIC) and County Public Accounts Committee (CPAC) are here. You will find that most of the projects in the counties are white elephants. Big projects which are worth millions are not completed. Even now if we get into these areas. Members of the Senate who went for Senate Mashinani saw with their naked eyes how these projects are still not complete, yet the community needs them. For example, if a health center or hospital is not complete, when will these people from this location or sub-county use these services? So, when funds are allocated to the county, the priorities are diverted when they get to the county. The Governor and the people whom he works with decide to divert the funds to projects that are so comfortable to them. Then the community is left wandering in search of water, food, health services, school fees et cetera . We will not tire to do oversight. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, when Senators oversight and try to exercise their constitutional responsibility to the county, the county feels hurt. We will ensure that we oversight any public fund that is given to the county until the end of our age. The other one thing that we have also realized is the issue of pending bills. It is becoming a problem. Before pending bills are paid, there are things that are considered; politics comes in. The current governor would say he or she is not paying those bills because he does not know what happened during the procurement process et cetera . However, during the handing over, the governor received all the pending bills and the handing-over report. He could have denied and said let audit be done to pending bills and incomplete projects before he or she pay. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
}