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{
    "id": 477306,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/477306/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 238,
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    "content": "Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, our Committee will be proposing an additional conditional allocation of Kshs1.87 billion for Level 5 Hospitals. Therefore, conditional allocation will increase by this amount. The Committee received presentations from the CRA, Treasury, Council of Governors and so on. We also received presentations from Busia. This was due to the variance in equitable shareable amount due to Bungoma and Busia counties. This is because the initial population figures included in the population data for Teso North and Teso South as part of Bungoma had to be adjusted based on advice from the Kenya Bureau of Statistics. That adjustment has been brought in. The same adjustment was also made for Bomet County just as we did last year for Kericho County. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I want to mention that counties face a challenge in the sense that this Bill should have been passed before 30th June to allow counties do their budgets. However, as I speak now, counties have already done their budgets based on what they thought is going to come from the Division of Revenue and Division of Allocation Bill. However, the counties will not draw this money because this is the Bill that will legitimize, legalize and/or give authority to the Controller of Budget to allow the authorization of withdrawal from the Consolidated Fund. Under Section 134 of the Public Finance Management Act, counties are allowed to spend a half of the amount subject to approval by the county assemblies. They will also be allowed to spend half of the Appropriation Bill. If we get this Bill finalized by next week, it will be very important because the counties will be able to access their money. I know this matter has already been raised in court and a direction issued that counties be allowed to access a half of the money. The Controller of Budget is obliged to release the money under that section of the law. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, it is important to note that after we pass this Bill, one of the things that needs to be done is, Treasury needs to submit a schedule for transfer of money to the House. We requested them to do so, by tomorrow before this House adjourns. This will give guidance on how Treasury will be disbursing the funds. The law is that they must disburse it on a monthly basis to the counties. Hopefully, we will be tabling that schedule for the transfer of money tomorrow. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, this County Allocation of Revenue Bill does not include local revenue that is generated by county governments. However, in their budget, the county governments are required to include the revenue that they will collect from their own sources within the county. It is important to appreciate that for some of the counties which have substantial amount of resources, the figures that will be here will not necessarily represent the entire revenue that those counties will be having access to. I also want to mention that there are concerns about how this money will be spent when it goes down to the county governments. One of the most important concerns is how the revenue that will be allocated to county governments will be shared between the county assemblies and the county executive. We have seen instances where some county assemblies have demanded as much as half or a third of that money. If a county gets Kshs4 billion we have instances where county assemblies are asking for Kshs1 billion. The way the law has been structured is that whatever money goes to the county 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."
}