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{
    "id": 484915,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/484915/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 422,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Ng’ongo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 110,
        "legal_name": "John Mbadi Ng'ong'o",
        "slug": "john-mbadi"
    },
    "content": "In my view, let us deal and sort out our governors who are not able to deliver together with their executives. But it is wrong to brand all counties as having failed. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I listened to the Member of Parliament contributing and with a lot of bitterness, but I understand. I want to remind her that the way she is feeling now is the way we have felt for the past 50 years. Some of us had never seen those billions come to our places. All this money, probably, has been going to Thika. So, the MP for Thika is feeling so hurt because the money is now going to Suba. Could she allow us to also enjoy some of the benefits of independence in this country? I want to address the issue of amendments to this Bill because that has raised a lot of concern. Truth be told, I find it really interesting that the Senate continuously amends the Public Finance Management Act through other legislation. This is a bad practice. I have said that before and I will repeat it again. Hon. A.B. Duale read Section 6 of that Act. I sat in Naivasha with my colleagues – We were three Members of Parliament, Senator Murkomen and the Senator for Kitui – and this is one of the provisions that we included in this law. Our intention was to make the Public Finance Management Act superior to any other law in terms of financial management. We were doing that so as to streamline the financial management system. We wanted to be clear in our minds which law to refer to when you talk about financial matters in terms of management. We also wanted to ensure that there is fiscal discipline. To that extent, I disagree with the Senate. There is a fundamental issue I wanted to raise. At times, I see us directing our arsenal at the governors, but the problem is the Members of the County Assemblies (MCAs). I want to agree with the Senate--- I know some Members are saying that this amendment recommending that the CRA recommends rates or comes up with a ceiling is not constitutional. That is not correct. Actually, I want to invite my colleagues to read Article 201 of the Constitution. It says this about principles of public finance: “Public money shall be used in a prudent and responsible way. That finance management shall be responsible and fiscal reporting shall be clear.” Article 216 on the roles and functions of the CRA states: “The Commission shall also make recommendations on other matters concerning the financing of and financial management by the county governments.” This means that the CRA can make recommendations on financial management by the county governments. Therefore, if the CRA realizes that counties are wasting too much money on recurrent expenditure or travel by the MCAs, then they have a constitutional mandate and function to recommend the ceilings. I have a copy with me of the recommendations by the CRA on the ceilings. For example, with regard to Homa Bay County – after doing this through proper, objective and scientific way of calculating the actual cost of running county assemblies – instead of putting the county assembly allocation at Kshs477 million they have increased it to Kshs805 million. We did not form counties to enrich MCAs. For a small county like Busia, the county assembly is putting Kshs791 million. This is a very small county in terms of numbers of the MCAs. You cannot compare it to Kakamega or Homa Bay. In fact, this is the county with a record of foreign travel. I have the data. I am talking about Busia County. It is allocating Kshs150 million for foreign travel for MCAs. Do you think we should not bring order in that? To that extent, I agree with the Senate’s amendment to put ceilings on how much should be spent on recurrent expenditure. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}