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{
    "id": 468059,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/468059/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 259,
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    "content": "offloading is the staff and they have even gone ahead to give a list, like we were told the other day by the Senator for Kitui that his governor has been given a list of 2,000 members of staff yet they have not even gone through all these issues of budgeting and even setting the ceilings. It is like the Government likes offloading the burden of dealing with personnel and that is why it is ready to give out lists before even sending the money. At the same time, if we are not careful, we might just be devolving the wage bill, as it has been said. If you have a wage bill of over Kshs200 billion and what you are sending is Kshs190 billion, then you might just be paying the wage bill and the governors will be set up for failure because they will not be able to deliver the services which the public expects of them. Madam Temporary Speaker, mine is just to urge the Government that much as they want to devolve functions, they should also make sure that the necessary resources to undertake those functions are also devolved and that the 15 per cent, which I do not know by what means it found itself in the Constitution, because we never sat down and came up with a figure like that; we should have done an analysis of the cost of the functions which the Constitution intended to devolve. The 15 per cent should be based on something. When you come up with a percentage like that, then you expect the national Government to just give you 15 per cent and announce loudly that they have given us more than what the Constitution says. This figure of 15 per cent needs to be addressed. It needs to be changed to even 50 per cent so that justice will be done and the county governments are given enough funds. Right now, we are coming up with a situation whereby the national Government will remain with more money. The national Government has what used to be the Provincial Administration. We passed a structure that came up with commissioners, among other things. Those people will have access to the 85 per cent. This will still be a system where the planning will be haphazard. You will have moved from those who will have done the planning to those who will be implementing; the county commissioners, all the way to chiefs. That will be a direct competition with the county governments. That is why there is a need to look at how the Government will spend the 85 per cent. The Government has incapacitated itself on the ground. It has remained with money which it has to use on the ground. It may end up using people who are not qualified. We should implement what we have been running away from in terms of making sure that the people on the ground are the ones who decide their priorities and develop capacity at the county level. We will have a situation where we have capacity, people at the county but the monies with the wrong people."
}