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{
    "id": 420154,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/420154/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 145,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Rop",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1922,
        "legal_name": "Jackson Kipkorir Rop",
        "slug": "jackson-kipkorir-rop"
    },
    "content": "move very fast, and after going through, table them in the House. We have instructed the accounting officers to be alive to that fact. The issues that are now facing the counties are as a result of us not adhering to Article 203(2)(3) of the Constitution. This is about sharing of revenue between the two levels of government, that is the national Government and the county governments; this sharing is to be based on audited revenues collected by the national Government. These revenues must be approved by this House. If you look at the reports we are discussing, the 2008/2009 Financial Year; it means, if we do not improve and move fast to the 2010/2011 Financial Year, the revenue that is being shared out will really be meager. We want to really push the accounting officers to adhere to the reports and work smart in their departments. There are issues on imprests totaling to billions of shillings. Issues on excess expenditure are worrying; there are pending bills totaling to about Kshs.16 billon and excess expenditure of over Kshs.33 billion. That means Kshs.17 billion is money that was spent outside the Budget, and we are instructing the accounting officers that they should be very keen. As a Committee, we are serious and are working round the clock. For your information, most of us do not even go home on Mondays and Fridays. We are here in our committee meetings, so that we can really improve on these reports, because we are lagging behind. I am happy that this Report has been tabled in this House; I am requesting that it be passed, because we really want to update it, so that we improve accounting and have more revenue to share between the national Government and the counties. In the Report, I also saw something on Fund accounts. Those are the accounts of district treasuries and the Rural Enterprise Development Fund that ought to have been frozen or closed and monies wired back to the National Treasury to be used for meaningful development. These are issues the National Treasury should take up seriously because several district treasuries are still holding some funds, which they should by now have actually surrendered back to the National Treasury to enable the Government utilize them. Those are unspent balances that have been lying in those accounts. It is very unfortunate to get reports of unsupported expenditures and these are issues we are seeing every other time; a Ministry could be having unsupported expenditure totaling to about Kshs.3.6 billion. These are expenditures that were incurred but the documentation could not be ascertained by the auditor. You find the officer of the Auditor-General working round the clock trying to generate quality reports, but occasionally Ministries do not give them the documents that they require on expenditures. It is really pathetic for the auditor to query such an expenditure that was incurred by a Ministry. These are issues that the accounting officers and all the heads of accounting units in the Ministries should take seriously. Excluded expenditures are issues that have been raised in this Report. I am happy that the National Treasury has admitted. It is worrying to be told that these excluded expenditures are attributed to book-keeping errors, when we have qualified accountants; this is very pathetic. I believe that as they have indicated there, the National Treasury has posted qualified accountants to all accounting units and district treasuries; reports which will be generated in future will be better than this. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}