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{
    "id": 467681,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/467681/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 168,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "This country, as I have said, was not developed at par. We have serious disparities because the budgets were hurriedly prepared. The budgets were skewed in favour of the national Government in some areas. In fact, this has been increasing more than it has been decreasing so that it becomes bottom heavy. I suggest that we look at this in future. There are also some misconceptions about the issue of capacity at the county level. I am worried that this could be used to retain funding at the national level. The counties need to have the bit to do with pay rolls. There is no change to anything. The functions that have been devolved to the county governments have offices and staff who have been seconded or some who were already there. The fact that people can use flimsy reasons worries us. It was not a good decision to put the Transition Authority under the Ministry of Devolution and Planning because it needs to be autonomous. We are not saying that it should have a lot of money because there is already a lot of money in the Ministry which has not been planned for. We have a number of regional authorities, for example, the regional authorities for water. Water is a devolved function. We will be duplicating this function. We are not saying that money should all be channeled to the counties but, at least, in the planning stages, we should share information so that we do not duplicate. If the Ministry of Environment, Water and Natural Resources, through the National Water Conservation and Pipeline Corporation (NWCPC), for instance, will construct a certain number of pans in a certain county, for the purposes of planning and taking care of the deficits that counties will be facing, it is important that we do coherent planning so that we do not have a mix up in terms of sharing allocations and opportunities. I have a proposal with regard to the Equilisation Fund. Just like the CDF Funds were modeled in our counties so that the end of a financial cycle does not affect funding, if we cannot allocate all the Kshs210 billion Fund at once – this has already been called a Fund – we should model it along the CDF so that we do not have people trying to beat the June 30th deadline. Traditionally, we know that the spending done around the 30th June deadline for national Government is prone to abuse. There is hurried disbursement of funds and these results into ultimate corruption that has bedeviled our country for long. I am grateful that you have given me an opportunity. I support this Bill. The earlier we have funding for our counties the better. With regard to the ongoing wrangles between the National Assembly, the Senate and the governors, these are teething problems. We hope that with time, they will end and we move forward in joining other nations that have moved forward in progressing fairly well."
}