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    "id": 607113,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/607113/?format=api",
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    "content": "(v) The total resources to be allocated to individual programmes and projects including the counties. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, our role is to review and approve these economic and spending policies contained in these document. I want to briefly look at some of the issues in this pillar then I go to recommendations so that we can save on time. On page two of the document, we will look, very briefly, at what the policy statement addresses. The Committee looked at the five-policy pillars which include the macro-economic performance, the spending revenue and debt framework, the proposed sharing of revenue between the national and county governments. The Committee considered the five policy pillars as critical in setting out the broad government policies and proposed reforms. The other thing that I want to mention very briefly is the concerns and implications on the counties of this Medium Term Budget Policy on page 14. The Committee received reports and recommendations from various Standing Committees of this House on this policy statement. One of the things that all the Committees raised is the limited time in which the Committee was required to consider and give their recommendations. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, most of us, including the departmental committee, were of the view that the limited time constraint inhibited detailed scrutiny of the past performance and the future policy proposed in this. We have recommendation to that effect. I will come to that later. Regarding the social sector, for example, the health sector, we made the following observations. We are concerned about the huge pending bills in the health sector. There are concerns also about allocations towards the free maternity health care, the leasing of health equipment and the financing of Level 5 hospitals. The Committee also observed that in this sub-sector, there are issues that needed to be addressed in this Report that had not been addressed. For example, inadequate health facilities and equipments, particularly the available infrastructure and equipment in many of the health facilities are either inadequate or dilapidated. We also considered the inadequate staffing problems. We have noted that on average there are 19 doctors per 100,000 persons compared to the WHO recommendation of 36 doctors to 100,000 persons. In the case of nurses, we also have the same challenge of 173 nurses against the recommended 356 per 100,000 in the population. There are also widespread inequalities in the distribution of the health workers in the country. Therefore, the Budget Policy Statement (BPS) proposes significant resources to go to curative services within the national Government. We will also come up with recommendations on that. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, on the energy sector, communication and technology, we also noted that the Ministry responsible for Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) seems to be under-funded. This may potentially affect the realization of key flagship projects such as Konza City and other ICT pacts. According to this Report, the problem of pending bills is also a major issue. We also noted that in the ICT sector in particular, there are inadequate policies, guidelines and regulations to mainstream ICT usage in the economy. 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."
}