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"speaker_name": "Sen. Billow",
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"legal_name": "Billow Adan Kerrow",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. This is a legal responsibility of this House and as the Motion says, the law is very clear. Section 17 of the Public Financial Management Act Public Finance Management (PFM) Act as amended by the County Allocation of Revenue Act requires that schedule. If I can actually read Section 7(5), for the benefit of the Members, it says: “Each county government’s allocation shall be transferred to the respective county revenue fund in accordance with the payment schedule gazetted by the Cabinet Secretary in terms of Section 17 of the PFM Act, provided that the Transition Authority has gazetted for transfer the functions to be financed by those allocations.” Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, Section 17 of the PFM Act was also amended by this Act in Section 14 of the Act as follows:- “The national Treasury shall at the beginning of every month and in any event, not later than the 15th day of the commencement of the month, disburse monies to the county governments for the expenditure of the following month.” So, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the important thing to note here is that whatever county government’s money has been allocated, the Kshs290 billion sharable revenue which has been allocated through this County Allocation of Revenue Act, must be disbursed by the Treasury to the county revenue fund. There has to be a payment schedule. That payment schedule is what is determined by this Act. That, on a monthly basis, the national Treasury must transfer the respective monies for the counties to the county revenue funds. In so doing, therefore, they are required to prepare a schedule that shows how that money will be distributed, county by county, and for which month; and the respective amounts. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, a schedule has been prepared to that effect. That is the schedule that is being tabled before this House. Hon. Members can get copies if it because it has not been attached to the Order Paper. I can see very clearly that what we see on this disbursement schedule, we, as Members of this Committee, are satisfied that it meets the requirements as required by law. What is important here is that the County Allocation of Revenue Act was passed at the end of August. So, the first allocation, therefore, was actually made in the last week of that month. Therefore, the schedule is very clear; it starts from August for 12 months. The money for each of the counties will be spread over 12 months, starting from August this year all the way to June. By June, all the money that has been allocated for each of the counties should have been transferred to the respective county revenue funds. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, if you look at the schedule for the month of August, for example, the amount being transferred is Kshs16,150,000,000 for the 47 counties. If you look at this month, the amount that should have been transferred comes to Kshs16,150,000,000 also. In other words, the money is actually now going. The only thing I can say for sure is that, one, the Act came in a bit late. Second, there is an 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."
}