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{
    "id": 437205,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/437205/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 439,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to appreciate and laud Mombasa County. The Senator has indicated that they generated a lot of revenue. Most of our counties have concentrated on the resources transferred to them by the national Government at the expense of generating more revenue at the counties. So, it is important for the governors and the county governments to focus on ways and means of raising revenue and sealing the loopholes that exist so that they are able to raise local revenue to deal and help them in dealing with recurrent expenditure. One of the issues, and I think this is a legal issue, some of our counties have staff serving under the national Government, there was mass transfer. The law is very clear that counties should only absorb staff they need. If, for example, in my county we have around 350 staff that we do not need, we should give them back to the national Government so that it can decide on a retrenchment programme and the attendant cost to be put on the national Government. So, we should not be complaining or our county governments should not feel restricted to push away some of the staff that were assigned to them by the national Government so that they can reduce the cost. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, finally, it is quite unfortunate that whereas our county governments are telling us that they have to shoulder huge wage bills, but they continue to engage in a process of recruiting staff they do not even need. County governments need to start from a clean slate so that the challenges that we are facing of wage bill can be avoided. They should ensure that they only engage the staff they need. The kind of hiring process going on in our counties is absurd. You hear of a county government that has a political advisor, economic advisor, cultural advisor and all manner of advisors. We want to tell them that as they complain of runaway wage bill, what are they doing to ensure that they do not create the same problem that exist? Mr. Deputy Speaker, I wish to talk about the issue of the Equalization Fund. It is shocking to hear that the Equalization Fund that we agreed upon and passed in the last financial year never went to the counties. The question that some of us are asking ourselves is what was the Committee for Finance, Commerce and Budget doing in this House for the whole year. That issue has never been raised. Why did the Committee not raise the issue with the relevant institution or with the national Government? Therefore, the relevant Committee of this House has let down our counties and this House. As we pass this Bill and deal with the County Allocation of Revenue Bill at the right time, we should ensure that the resources that were allocated through the Equalization Fund must be transferred to the counties immediately. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I hope when we get to the Committee of the Whole, we will amend the relevant clauses before we pass the Bill. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I beg to support, but with a heavy heart."
}