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"speaker_name": "Mr. Mbau",
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"legal_name": "Elias Peter Mbau",
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"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, thank you for giving me the chance to contribute to this important Bill. Right from the outset, I want to say that I had my very deep-seated reservations on the way forward for this Bill. However, the Minister in moving this Bill has kind of enumerated the intent and the scope of this Bill. This Bill is aimed at helping operationalization of some aspects of Schedule 6 of the Constitution. I want to read Article 15:- “Parliament shall, by legislation, make provision for the phased transfer, over period of not more than three years from the date of the first election of county assemblies, from the national Government to county governments of the functions assigned to them under Article 185” Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, and Article 15 (2) (b) also reads:- “Parliament shall establish criteria that must be met before particular functions are devolved to county governments to ensure that those governments are not given functions which they cannot perform” Arising out of this, the Transitional Authority Act has been enacted in this House which is invariably the organization of authority that is supposed to oversee the transitional functions. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, when I saw what the Minister is now raising, I quickly referred to the Public Finance Management Act (2012). In this Act, Section 103 provides for nearly all the functions, duties and powers that are now purportedly contained in this particular proposed Bill; the powers of establishment of county treasuries and general responsibilities of county treasury. When you go all the way up to Section 107, you find county treasury to enforce fiscal responsibility. Section 109 provides the establishment of a county revenue fund for each county. What I am trying to raise is that for this particular Bill not to become superfluous, unnecessary or irrelevant, the Minister for Finance, who is the Mover of this Bill, must now go to last clause of the Bill itself, which is Clause 30, and read what it says. It says:- “This Act shall stand repealed at the end of the transition period” We must define the transition period which must be either 30th of June, 2013 or latest September. This must be spelt out because otherwise, in my mind, the transition period is already covered by the other Acts, and particularly Section 103 of the Public Financial Management Act. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Minister, in doing so, needs also to appreciate that Section 205 of Public Financial Management Bill requires the publication of regulations. Probably, if you had already published those regulations, you may already have catered for the many areas of concern and loopholes that you are now talking about in this Bill. Probably, the regulations would have dealt with that. If the Minister agrees that this Bill, in becoming an Act, shall be given that specific time-frame, then, of course, we shall continue to support it. That is because it shall be serving for only that transitory period and letting the other enabling laws towards the devolved system take effect."
}