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{
    "id": 396431,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/396431/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 164,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Ndiema",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1067,
        "legal_name": "Henry Tiole Ndiema",
        "slug": "henry-tiole-ndiema"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, thank you for giving me a chance to contribute to this debate. There are many issues that have been raised in the report and I think some of them are excuses. The question we should ask ourselves is whether the officers, that is, the county assembly and the executive knew what they were doing when they did what they did. The answer to that is, yes. Each one of them was conscious. If they were able to pinpoint and make amendments in certain areas, then they knew what they were doing. It was deliberate they were trying to address certain situations. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is true that county assemblies do not have capacities in certain aspects but on this particular issue, having prepared the Budget and then amended a second one and submitted it, definitely, it was not an issue of capacity. Even the issue of the “poor” Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS) has been dragged in. I do not know what part IFMIS played to amend the figures. Some of us have done budgets before when there were no computers. We used to type it and if you go wrong, you re-type it manually. In those times, there were no errors. After the computers came in, we started assigning errors and blaming it on the computer. I think we should spare IFMIS from blame. Counties have new officers and the county assembly members are new. Some of them do not know the budgeting process. The executive is new and I support the idea that all of them must undergo crash programmes to train them on all aspects of legislation and also financial management, including budgeting. That should have been done. That was the work of the Transition Authority (TA) but I do not know whether that has been done. This problem cuts across all counties. I am not saying that amendments have been done in all counties but problems are there and something should be done. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, the roles of the two arms of government in the counties must be understood by both sides in the context of the Constitution. What does the Constitution say? There could also be areas like we have seen in this House where the Constitution may not be clear or there is a lacuna that may need to be looked at. I want to believe that what has happened here is not a question of bad working relations between the county assembly and the executive. In any case, the majority of the executive were just appointed the other day by the county assembly. So, it may not be exactly that. The problem could be the system itself; how do they share the revenue that is available? What are the mechanisms and what are the percentages? For instance, what is the role of the county assembly in the budget making process? We could as well be having a situation here where the governor and his team of executives have an idea of how to spend the money but the county assembly says that they are the final authority and have the final say. I want to believe that there is much we are not being told in this report. The thing that is clear is that the two arms of government are not agreeing. If they are not agreeing, then what is the mechanism of that dispute resolution? If the executive disagrees with the county assembly, what is the recourse? What is the role of the Senate? Can the Senate be an arbitrator? Is it provided for in law The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}