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{
    "id": 397854,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/397854/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 137,
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    "speaker_name": "",
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "The Committee considered the Cash Disbursement Schedule for County Governments for Fiscal Year 2012/2013 and recommends that pursuant to the provisions of Section 17(7) of the Public Finance Management Act, the Senate approves the County Government Cash Disbursement Schedule for Fiscal Year 2013/2014. I beg to move. Madam Temporary Speaker, the cry for devolution and devolved functions has been heard very loudly across this beautiful country of ours. At the advent of implementation of the new Constitution, there have been a lot of discussions regarding what should be devolved to the County Governments and what should remain at the national Government. This first step that has been taken now, involves the disbursement of some of the money that should be taken to the counties for management. It is the first time that the national Government has actually disbursed money to the counties. If you look at the Schedule, it shows very clearly that some Kshs16 billion is above the average amount that is being disbursed on the average per month. Over the last two months, there have been about two times the amount, that is, Kshs32 billion and another Kshs19 billion about to be disbursed. With those disbursements start the real issues regarding devolved governments. It is now time for the county governments to start showing that what they have been crying for can also be managed. It is one thing to ask for something and quite another to get it. Sometimes, you might just get what you ask for. In this particular case, the money has been given and devolved by the national Treasury. Now, it is time for the county governments to prove that those who have been saying that the county governments do not have capacity should be proved wrong. Now it is time because the national Treasury did its bit, the county executives responsible for finance in various counties must now do their bit. Having said that, I want to remind the national Treasury of two things; the first one is that this House passed a Motion that the money that is supposed to go to counties must be disbursed on the 15th day of every month. Therefore, we hope that at no time is a 15th day going to come and a story is told, rather than the money being disbursed. The national Treasury has confirmed that they will continue to do this. Secondly, we also passed in this House an amendment to the Act to the effect that no function will be devolved to the county governments without the commensurate amounts necessary to implement that function at the county level. We are aware that there are some counties that are operating at an annual deficit and at some point, the national Treasury is going to look at those things so that as they make monthly disbursements, they can slowly start disbursing monies to counties that have a deficit and which you will ultimately be requested for rather, than the national Treasury paying bulk amounts at the end of the year. It would be best for them to start that compensation early enough, piecemeal by piecemeal, to avoid cash-flow challenges. What we are asking is that, as a House, we need in our oversight capacity, to see the planning that the counties are engaged in. We need to be part of that planning that is being done at the county level. We need to ensure that proper procedures are followed in procurement; we need to ensure that counties are prioritizing expenditures in the manner that they are supposed to. For example, we have seen and heard counties that are working in a rather unexplainable manner. When you propose that you want to put Kshs200 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."
}