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{
    "id": 1545938,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1545938/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 41,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. M. Kajwang’",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13162,
        "legal_name": "Moses Otieno Kajwang'",
        "slug": "moses-otieno-kajwang"
    },
    "content": "Turkana County had Kshs85 million of unsurrendered imprest, Samburu had Kshs39 million of unsurrendered imprest, Mombasa County had Kshs25 million and Kakamega County, where Sen. Bonnie comes from, had Kshs18 million lying in the hands of officers and not surrendered. The PFM Act makes imprest management clear on who bears responsibility and we have made those recommendations. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, some governors have made local arrangements in counties. Many county governments do not have audit committees and it seems to be deliberate because they do not want anyone to ask them questions. I think it was Kirinyaga County that appeared before us. The audit committee is non-existent. If there is no audit committee, the plans of the internal audit function cannot be approved because it is an audit committee that approves the plans of the internal audit committee. There were close to 11 counties that did not have functional audit committees and internal audit function. There were counties that did not have functional County Public Service Boards. Kisii County is one example where the former Chairperson of the Board became the Deputy Governor, after this House did what it did. So, the County Public Service Board is non-functional, they cannot recruit and sort out the many Human Resources (HR) issues that they have. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we also have talked about prior year issues. This is one of the issues that the Senate has gone to court over. If you do recall, Justice Jairus Ngaa made the ruling that Article 229(3) and (8) must be complied with strictly. However, the Senate went back to court for a judicial review, seeking administrative reliefs to allow us to deal with backlog. What we are doing today is compliance with the High Court's ruling. In fact, not just the High Court's ruling, but we are complying with what the Constitution requires us to do. We have had about 10 years of bad manners. Therefore, it would be responsible for the courts to say that if we did not comply over the last 10 years, that expenditure now should be water under the bridge. We must find certain administrative reliefs to enable us to hold to account those governors even in periods where the audit reports had not been considered. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, in Uganda, they have put it in law. What happens when Parliament fails to consider the audit reports? The same way the county assemblies have failed because as I had mentioned, perhaps it was only Kakamega County Assembly that demonstrated to us at some point that they were up to date in consideration of the Audit- General reports. We have a problem with the rest. In Uganda, if six months lapse after tabling of the audit reports and Parliament does not take action, the audit report is adopted automatically. It is just like the way we treat statutory instruments. If Parliament does not take action on statutory instruments within the 14 days or within the duration prescribed, they become law. We will make recommendations that we need to amend our legislation and procedures to allow the audit reports to become law if Parliament fails to act. That should give us a window to be able to deal with issues from past financial years. I would like to come to a conclusion by making a few proposals on how we can do our work better. I must admit that with 2,300 pages, it is possible that we may not have captured certain issues with the precision and sharpness that is required. Even 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."
}