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{
    "id": 1550637,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1550637/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 568,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kibwezi West, MCCP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Mwengi Mutuse",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you for the protection and guidance. I was on the constitutional foundation upon which we are discussing the Division of Revenue Bill. I want to narrow myself to the most contentious bit, which is the quantum of money that each level of Government is to get. Article 203 (2) of our Constitution is the basis for the arithmetical sharing of resources. The operative words in that particular Article are that: “For every Financial Year, the equitable share of the revenue raised nationally that is allocated to county governments shall be not less than fifteen per cent of all revenue collected by the national government in terms of the most recent audited accounts as approved by the National Assembly.” I ably listened to my senior colleague, the Member for Kitui Central, Hon. Makali, who suggested that it is plausible to imagine that we can amend the Constitution to remove the part that talks about approval by the National Assembly. I want to respectfully disagree with him. It will be a misnomer if revenue is shared without the involvement of the National Assembly because we are the people’s representatives. I also reckon that the most recent audited accounts of our revenues are those of the 2020/2021 Financial Year. That means that we are three years behind. I have been a member of the Public Accounts Committee for the last two years. I can speak from experience that the Public Accounts Committee is one of the committees that is committed to duty. The reason why we are lagging is when accounting officers from the national Government are invited as witnesses before the Public Accounts Committee and, many times, they have excuses and do not provide the necessary documentation. It is high time the office of the Auditor-General, the Public Accounts Committee, this House and principal secretaries in the national Government ministries began to take this work seriously. It forms the basis of the reports tabled by the Public Accounts Committee, which in turn form the basis for the division of revenue. Allow me to delve further into arithmetic. The National Treasury, through this Bill that my able Chair has moved, is proposing that county governments get a share of revenue amounting to Ksh405 billion. The last audited accounts put national revenue at about Ksh2,830,000,000. If you do quick arithmetic, you will realise that the revenue share going to county governments is about 25.9 per cent of the revenue raised nationally. Therefore, it is 10 per cent above the minimum standard set by the Constitution. I am saying this so that Members of this House can tell the propaganda that may be spewed in many quarters outside there. The revenue that the National Treasury has proposed is above the minimum standard proposed by the Constitution. However, there is a need for us to work with speed. We need to work speedily so that we do not have to deal with a backlog or revenue-sharing formula three years behind in the future. We should only deal with the current version."
}