Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 525348,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/525348/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 378,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "I underline and put it in bold. This Report should have had an index highlighting how our county governments have spent money so that when you give them 1 per cent fiscal responsibility, it is only in Kenya where you give somebody an incentive when you do not know what that is for. We have records in this Senate. Sen. (Dr.) Khalwale is here and he would confirm that counties have reduced their revenue collection. If we do not have those facts here in this Report, why are we giving them an incentive of 1 per cent? We are telling them that their work is to have financial prudence and act responsibly. I am going to tell CRA again that Article 207 says in mandatory terms that there shall be financial prudence and accountability. Therefore, you cannot appear to be powdering governors and counties by telling them to collect money and that you have given them the incentive. We should tell them that it is their work to account for the money they have worked for. Therefore, this revenue sharing formula and the reasons given have not been given to us with a basis. They have given us two pages with no material to support. That is why under fiscal responsibility, that is what the Commission says. They are saying:- “This parameter ensures that county governments take responsibility to ensure public resources are used prudently.” We cannot babysit counties. That is the reason why counties are behaving that way. We are doing this under the backdrop that county governments have refused entirely to account. The county governments have issued injunctions on this Senate on every mandate we have except revenue sharing formula where the CRA is taking pictures with them. They do not realize that if they come to us; the Senate of this Republic because we are the people who are supposed to manage this; then the question of accountability will come naturally and will follow because they would have then told counties in this Report that if they want an incentive, the County of Narok, for example, collected Kshs1.097 billion from Mara and from Trans Mara US$5 million. That information should be here so that we tell them that if they want to get a further allocation, then it would be given. Madam Temporary Speaker, for purposes of emolument and fiscal responsibility, this should be a conditional grant. An incentive must be a conditional grant so that we can reward the people who are working and not move this across the board even for the people who are plundering public resources. Although I find myself in a difficult position as a Member of the Committee on Finance, Commerce and Budgeting to agree with this, I say that this is a transitional report. We must say so and tell the Republic so. This is a transitional report because the law under the Constitution provided that this second generation formula was a transitional one. We must tell the CRA that they have let us down, as the Senate of this Republic, by giving us things that we cannot work with; things that we cannot critique, things that we cannot deal with; and, figures that we do not know where they have come from. They have come to sit here for the first time yet they have had an opportunity to call us to those nice posh hotels they have been calling everybody so that we can work with them on this. Therefore, I support this formula with those caveats that we must tell the public that we have been given a formula too late in the day, and we have the Budget Policy Statement which includes this Report. By the time we are debating this, the national Treasury has already put this in the Budget Policy Statement (BPS), yet we have not 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."
}