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{
    "id": 1505559,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1505559/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 175,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. M. Kajwang’",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13162,
        "legal_name": "Moses Otieno Kajwang'",
        "slug": "moses-otieno-kajwang"
    },
    "content": "not able to prepare her report on time. When the Assembly eventually got to consider the report, it made recommendations that both persons be investigated and be prosecuted for causing serious financial loss to the residents of Nairobi. Those officers of the County went to court, and in court arguments were made. The eventual decision was that the County Assembly of Nairobi City acted outside the constitutional timelines, and therefore their report was null and void; and that the Auditor-General also tabled that report outside the constitutional timelines, and therefore that audit report was null and void. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, you can imagine the chaos that that decision is going to render. Even I in my Committee of Public Accounts Committee (CPAC) and Sen. Osotsi are dealing with reports outside the three-month period. The Senate Majority Leader is always tabling an audit report before this House and many of those audit reports are tabled outside the six-month period. We must now go back and ask ourselves how we are going to fulfil those timelines. In as much as I complain, there is only one positive thing about it. The Division of Revenue in the subsequent year must then be based on the most recent financial statements or on the most recent revenue statements. We will no longer be saying that because the National Assembly only adopted the 2021 revenue statement, that is the basis. It will now have to be on the basis of the revenues as audited in the Financial Year 2023/2024. If we use that, then automatically counties are going to get more money way above the Kshs387 billion. That is the positive thing about that ruling; that the pot is going to be bigger, it is going to be more recent, it is going to be more up-to-date and 15 per cent out of that pot will definitely exceed this amount. So, even if we are going to agree with the Mediation Committee on the Kshs387 billion and if we are going to go by Justice Ngaaah’s ruling, then in the next Division of Revenue, counties will be entitled to much more and there will be no stories of fiscal deficits. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, but there are practical complications in implementing that decision. What do you do with 10 years of audit reports that have been brought to this House outside time? What do you do with 10 years and hundreds of reports coming from our committees that have come here outside time? We made a resolution as a Committee, that the Senate needs to seek a review of that decision because the window for appeal has closed. Therefore, for what Justice Ngaah declared, we must find ways and as the Chair of the Liaison Committee, you must now start asking yourself how the two committees of accountability can consider all the reports within three months especially, when you consider that the Auditor-General brings the reports on 31st December, when we are on recess, and then the three months start counting from that 31st December. We must start thinking of the practical implications of that. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, even if we are going to give the counties Kshs387 billion, which is more or less what they got in the other financial year, that has not taken into account the inflationary aspect. I will give counties hope that if we strictly adhere to Articles 229(4), (8) and the other various provisions of the Public Audit Act, we will be presenting more money to counties in the future. 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."
}