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{
"id": 1527739,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1527739/?format=api",
"text_counter": 143,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Methu",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 13581,
"legal_name": "Methu John Muhia",
"slug": "methu-john-muhia"
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"content": "matters of oversight, as a person who has sat on a watchdog committee, I largely depend on the recommendations and work that the Auditor-General does. If these offices are not well resourced—you know, I heard some people threatening the Auditor-General that if she continues unearthing the things she is on Social Health Authority (SHA) and other Government projects, they will reduce her funding in Parliament. This is a retrogressive statement. It claws back into the gains that we have made in terms of our financial prudence. As Sen. Eddy and I, or any other Senator sitting in any Committee, we just take recommendations raw as they come from the office of the Auditor-General. We may want to play oversight, but do we have the tools as a House? Do we have the expertise? We are just struggling with the oversight fund. We are struggling with the officers who will help us in our oversight offices in the counties. The people who can help us because they have the expertise, knowledge, and continuous training on this particular matter would be the office of the Auditor-General. I am encouraged that the Committee has proposed that they add the office of the Auditor-General Kshs181 million so that they can hire even more and employ as much expertise as is required. What is Kshs181 million in a budget of Kshs4 trillion? This is an addition to protect resources. There are some people whose hands and fingers itch every time they see public resources. Every time they hear public resources anywhere, be it in the national Government or the county government, their fingers itch. Unless you put a good and strong watchman, they will continue plundering our resources. I encourage the Committee of Sen. Ali Roba to continue funding and listening to these independent offices. They are our last line of defence. When occasionally Parliament does not step up on such matters out of our political inclination, sometimes, the independent offices always step up. On this particular issue of SHA, had the Auditor- General not come out, you would not have expected that that truth would come from Parliament, the Ministry or the President. So, we must continuously fund the office of the Controller of Budget. The other office that has been funded is the Controller of Budget. Twice, we met the Controller of Budget as a Committee member of this House. In your county, Bomet, for example, I do not know what the pending bill would be or what the pending bills were in 2022 when your governor came in. The reason you hear that when he came in, the pending bills were Kshs700 million, and right now, they are either at Kshs700 million or are growing because they never pay these pending bills. What they do, and a colleague has aptly put it, is that they will make a requisition that we want to go and pay company X because they supplied goods X and presented the documents. The payment process for the Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS) is 13 or 14 steps. They will upload all your documents to make that requisition, from procurement to step No. 12, which is called validation. Step No.13 is Internet banking one, and step No.14 is Internet banking two. Once that requisition comes to the Control of Budget, they will just look and see. The agreement is that every requisition must include a portion for pending bills. However, once that money has hit the county revenue fund, they do a mischievous thing that they call voiding. They void that transaction. The money meant to pay Kamau ends up paying Omondi. The money meant to pay Company Y ends up paying Company Z. Company Y's documents will continue to 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."
}