Entry Instance

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

{
    "id": 1464091,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1464091/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 426,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kitui Central, WDM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Dr) Makali Mulu",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "It is important to observe that a county like Kitui, where I come from, is very rich in minerals but the amount it is getting is only Ksh114,000. That is a drop in the sea! Kitui should be getting billions of shillings! My Governor and his team can be more proactive if this framework is put in place. Once they taste the Ksh114,000, they will realise that exploiting more minerals will bring more money to the counties. In that case, we can have more resources to implement our programmes. The National Treasury needs to quickly come up with a framework in that area so that once we get the money, we are able to send it to the counties. On grants and loans, looking at these schedules, you will realise that a lot of money is being given by our development partners to support the counties, either through loans or grants. Unless the signing of the necessary or relevant agreements between the counties and some of the development partners is fast-tracked by the National Treasury, there is a likelihood of a delay in terms of implementation. This should be a concurrent kind of process so that even as we go through this Bill, the National Treasury also initiates the process of ensuring that counties are facilitated to access this money once the Bill becomes an Act of Parliament. It is very bad that we are complaining about having no resources, yet some of our development partners have given us grants and we are not able to access the money just because some simple documents have not been signed. So, as the Budget and Appropriations Committee, we also made an observation that the area of loans and grants is very slow-moving in terms of utilisation of the resources. As a House, we need to seriously oversee this area, so that we use any money given by our development partners. In my other Committee, the Public Debt and Privatisation Committee, we have realised that the Government is paying a lot of commitment fees for loans which have been signed for, and we are not drawing the resources. We should have a smooth way of implementing our projects as a result of getting resources in a timely manner. The other critical matter is the own-source revenue. Counties are getting some of these additional resources, but I do not think they are doing enough to maximise or optimise their own- source revenue. Counties need to come up with ways of optimising their own-source revenue so that they supplement the resources from the national Government. That will help them to have more resources to implement programmes and also pay for their pending bills. In that case, they will be able to do much better, and the complaints about governors not doing the right thing can be minimised. One of the ways which has proved to be quite effective in doing that is the digitisation of their revenue collection. If they digitise those processes, they are likely to collect more money. I support the Bill, but I think we will be amending some sections before we finalise it so that by the time it is approved, we factor..."
}