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{
    "id": 468055,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/468055/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 255,
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "wondering where the 15 per cent came from because Article 203(2) talks of at least 15 per cent of the national generated revenue to go to the county governments. That basis of 15 per cent is not fair because if you have devolved more than half of the functions to the county governments, then how can you give them 15 per cent of the revenue? What does the national Government, which remains with less than half of the functions, do with 85 per cent? I think there is need to look at that and if possible raise it to maybe 50-50 or even up to 60 per cent to the county governments. That not being the case now, I would like to bring to the attention of this House that we know that the county governments have already done their budgets. What was the basis of those budgets? How did they get their ceilings to actually do their budgets? We might be working on a Bill when somebody has already done what we are trying to do here. So, we need to know the basis of the county governments’ budgets. The matrix that we are having here is what they are using or they had somebody else doing our role because it is the Senate which is supposed to come up with the allocation of revenue. The counties already have data which they used to work with to come up with their budgets. So, we need to look at that. Madam Temporary Speaker, this Bill talks of comparison with the proposals by the Commission for Revenue Allocation (CRA) where it clearly says that CRA was proposing Kshs231 Billion while the National Treasury came up with Kshs198 billion. We know very well that CRA has come up with a formula. Now that it is not being followed, how sure are we that even this allocation in the matrix among the counties is actually based on any formula if the CRA formula was not followed in the first place? This allocation among the counties might not also be correct because we do not know what formula was used. The CRA gave the formula and it was passed in the last Parliament and now we are being given reasons why it is not being followed. So, what is being followed to generate this allocation which we are discussing? In some sectors like the roads’ sector, we have the issue of county roads and national roads. Normally, we have two components. We have the development and the maintenance component. The maintenance component is clear. The funding comes from the Roads Maintenance Levy Fund which is being managed by the Kenya Roads Board (KRB) and which is being shared among the authorities using a particular percentage. Another issue is the development component which is the major of the two. The Development component which comes from the Exchequer is normally with the Minister. Now that the roads have been split into county roads and national roads, there is no formula for sharing money meant for development among the two roads. I have confirmed from the authorities that there is normally no particular formula. This is something which remains with the Minister. He is the one who decides what goes where. That is why the development of roads in this country is skewed. It is the Minister who decides where the money should go and that is why the executive, which appoints the Minister, is the one which decides where the money goes. We actually need a formula of how that money meant for development should shared so that we know that the money which the Ministry of Roads is getting goes to the county roads so that we can also have a formula of sharing it or including it in this. Right now, we do not know and that is where 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."
}