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{
"id": 1626318,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1626318/?format=api",
"text_counter": 290,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. M. Kajwang’",
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"speaker": null,
"content": "Senate County Public Accounts Committee. In that capacity, I have had interactions with the devolution donor working group, which is composed of people who have diplomatic passports and immunity and so there are some things that they cannot say openly. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, the legislative framework for approving additional allocations, what we used to call conditional grants, is extremely lousy and not fit for purpose. If the approvals for the additional allocations for the last financial year came about two or three months to the end of the financial year, are we being fair to Kenyans who are going to be charged because some of these are loans where interest is being paid? We need to innovate a different framework for us to disburse additional allocations to counties. When we started devolution, we had one instrument called the County Allocation of Revenue Bill, which had the distribution to counties as well as the conditional grants. The courts pronounced themselves that the Constitution and the Public Finance Management (PFM) Act required a separate instrument for that purpose. Whereas we put in specific timelines and through the efforts, litigation and jurisprudence that has developed over the years and through the efforts of my friend sitting to my left, the Senator for Busia County, we tied the division of revenue to the appropriations. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, this House must take note that in this financial year, the Appropriations Bill was signed into law before we approved the division of revenue. The division of revenue was approved by this House on the last day of the financial year, but the Appropriations Bill had been approved in the prior week, contrary to the directives of the court and litigation that was instituted by Sen. Omtatah. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, whereas we made the division of revenue on the critical path of appropriations, we did not put the conditional or additional allocations to be part of that critical path. As such, once the division of revenue, allocation of revenue and the disbursement schedule have been passed, then Parliament takes leisure in the passage of additional allocations, as the drama that we saw in the prior financial year, where we were haggling on where to position the Road Maintenance Levy Fund. As a result, counties ended up losing even proceeds to mineral royalties. The initial draft of that Bill at RMLF had a column on mineral royalties. However, in the version that we passed two months ago, counties like Kwale, Taita Taveta that were going to benefit from that additional allocation, which is unconditional, disappeared. It is not conditional. It is defined here as an unconditional allocation. As Parliament, we have enough experience of this matter and the Senate should drive the conversation with the devolution donor working group on how to make this process better. I am happy to report that next week, the Senate CPAC has invited the Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury and Economic Planning alongside members of the devolution donor working group. We are coming in from the accountability perspective. Again, audit oversight of conditional grants has been extremely loose. This is because some of these grants are conditional. They are national Government allocations to county governments to do specific purposes. Then comes the confusion on who is the accounting officer. Is the accounting officer the officer at the national level who has disbursed certain allocations 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."
}