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"id": 469167,
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"content": "Affairs, we were told later that they were able to use only Kshs300 million to do those structures. But after that, they ended up sitting down with the Governors and I do not know which other people. I do not know whether they were manipulated or they just said they decided they are going now to share the amounts equally. This House should not allow that to happen simply because the needs assessment had been done. If we allow that to happen, we will be setting or allowing bad precedence to take place; that we can even today pass a Revenue Bill here, set aside some funds which are going to go to the county, and later the Governor can decide he is going to re-allocate these funds from, may be, this particular project to another project of their own use. So, for that, even at the Committee level, I think we are working on that and we will make sure that, that will not happen. Madam Temporary Speaker, I support this Bill; it is a very nice Bill and I believe we will not be choking the Government when we ask for more funds, although we know very well that, at least, they have tried. But at the Committee level, I know there are a lot of negotiations which are going on and I can even tell this august House that the Committee Members who are representing you there are doing a good job, and we will make sure that, that figure will not be at Kshs210 billion. We fully concur with the Senators who have said that the non-conditional grants are not supposed to be shareable equity. Also, the same is true for the Equalisation Fund and the allocation to hold the counties harmless. When we also look at how the Ministries have projected their Recurrent Expenditure for 2013/2014 and also 2014/2015 financial years, instead of it descending, because definitely we expect that the functions will have been devolved into the counties, we find that, that expenditure is going up. It is ascending which means that there is something that those who are in charge of making the Budget have not looked at. But I believe that with our Committee, we will try to put a lot of input and tell them that, at least, that we do not agree with that. I believe there are quite a lot of savings we can make because I remember that the Presidential Speech was quite good and elaborate. Our President said that in his Government, he will make sure that no overlapping services are going to be found again. He spoke very well and said that he will want an effective and efficient Government. But when you still find the Metropolitan Department in the Ministry of Lands and Housing, then definitely something is not right because we believe that the Metropolitan Department should really be devolved into the counties straight away. What were they doing? You know very well the services they provided; water, access roads, may be street lighting. That one can purely be handled by the county governments. We saw some gross capital amounts of Kshs5 billion which had been set aside for that. So, I am sure that if we get savings or we take that particular capital expenditure into the shareable equity, then the counties are going to gain. Madam Temporary Speaker, without really making this House feel that I have talked a lot, let me just say that this Bill is the best Bill to us, because this is the first one we are receiving. But let us make sure that we panel beat it and make sure that the entire country will have the best out of it without choking the Government. So, Madam Temporary Speaker, with those few remarks, I beg to support the Bill."
}