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{
    "id": 1550624,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1550624/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 555,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kitui Central, WDM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Dr) Makali Mulu",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "case, we might get an additional Ksh10 billion or Ksh20 billion to push to the counties. This is another resource without increasing the revenue. We can push more resources to the counties by just doing a simple exercise of ensuring we minimise duplication of functions at the national and county levels. Hon. Temporary Speaker, the other important issue is a situation where we have non- discretionary expenditure. For example, in the last year, this House approved a number of taxes. We approved the Social Health Authority (SHA) at 2.57 per cent, and Housing Levy at 1.5 per cent. We allowed the increase of the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) by about Ksh6,000. These increases happened at the national level. Does it not make sense to ensure we provide budgets for the counties to cater for that expense because it is non-discretionary? They have no authority to say whether they can spend or not. It is a statutory requirement. As a result of our decisions at the national level, where we have increased expenditure for the counties and they have no choice other than to pay, it requires us to provide those resources. In that case, we will be helping the counties. The other important issue, Hon. Temporary Speaker, is that I remember the Cabinet Secretary of the National Treasury saying about two weeks ago that counties have a lot of money being held at the Central Bank of Kenya account. Some accounts have zero balances, while others have billions. I remember Kisii and two other counties have billions in the Central Bank of Kenya account. Nandi County has zero balance. We ask ourselves, is it not time we made operational the Treasury single account? This is so that if there is any government money anywhere, irrespective of the user, that money can be used by any other entity which requires money. That will reduce what we are facing. It will reduce public debt. It is very unfortunate that the Government of Kenya is borrowing its own revenue and paying interest on it when it should be using that money at zero interest. Why is that happening? It is because we have said we will not be able to make the Treasury Single Account operational. In that case, I always say that if you are a poor financial manager of your resources, you should not complain when you get broke because you are the one who is initiating the brokenness in you. In short, we may be unable to provide more resources to the counties. As we move to the future, can you look at some of these grey areas where, if we do slightly more work, we can help? We no longer have the Transitional Authority, which was transiting counties. However, we have the Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA), a constitutional body staffed with serious researchers. Is it not time this House gave the CRA some timeframe and told them that within the next six months, even if it takes them hiring external support, we want all Government functions costed, then we can engage in serious debate? If we reach that level, we will not complain about resources. We will be talking about effective use of public resources. We will be talking about efficiency and effectiveness. With these many remarks, I support. Thank you so much for the time."
}