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{
    "id": 437180,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/437180/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 414,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "A number of things which were raised included using the 2009/2010 audited accounts. I was a Member of the Public Investments Committee (PIC) in the Ninth Parliament. We found these same things happening. That was in 2003 to 2007. Why should we have this in the Eleventh Parliament? With a light touch, I want to say that when this Government came in it was said to be very digital. It must stamp its authority and say: “Why is the Auditor-General staying with unaudited accounts for two years?” We should be having the 2010-2011 Financial Year, audited accounts by now. We should be using those figures to share revenue that is raised by the Government. I do not want to over emphasise the conditional grants to Level 5 Hospitals. It is a burden on county governments. That must be reinstated without further delay. I know the Transition Authority (TA) had shared with us early last year that they were going to work on costings and unbundling of functions, something that is yet to come to a reality. We cannot keep on talking about failing to cost functions both for the national and county governments. This should have been done yesterday and not today. So much money is held at the national level by the national Government. Water and agriculture, for instance, are devolved functions. Why should the national Government be disbursing monies for water pans, for instance, in our areas when these things can be effectively done by our county governments? I remember the Ministry of Devolution and Planning is one sample of the Ministries. They were allocated about Kshs63 billion last time. We had the Ministry of State for Development of Northern Kenya. It is now a department. I do not think we need to allocate so much funding to the Ministry of Devolution and Planning in the pretext that they are actually having an enormous number of departments under it. We, as the Senate, should clearly look at whether this funding that goes to certain Ministries is used for the purposes intended. I am a bit skeptical about the Kshs1.45 billion shown on page four of the Schedule. This is for the Economic Stimulus Programme (ESP). I echo what Sen. (Prof.) Lonyangapuo said. We had only 210 constituencies where programmes like the economic stimulus projects were on going. Where will the money for the 80 constituencies above the 210 go, in the first place? I am also worried because this can be like what they used to call the Local Authority Transfer Fund (LATF). I am sure many of you will remember that the LATF was ongoing for ten years under the Ministry of Local Government. What they told us is that they were going to use this money to pay debts. These debts never ended. This will be the same thing if we are not careful. Let us watch, probably in the next financial year, they will tell us so much will be done under the ESP. We have to be very careful about this. I say so because in the constituency I served in the early days, we used the entire Kshs30 million on one project. So, what are they talking about when they say they will keep on allocating funds? The other item I want to talk about is the absorption capacities of county governments which may have been a problem. The Treasury could actually device a mechanism in which funds for county governments that have not absorbed, just like the CDF, can be reinvested. I remember of a project in the ASAL areas which used to be called the Arid Lands Resource Management Project (ALRMP) having reinvested funding. We need to be very careful with the manner in which these funds may be brought back to the Treasury. 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."
}