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{
    "id": 627981,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/627981/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 252,
    "type": "other",
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    "content": "recommend that the Treasury considers allocating money to cover roads that have been devolved to county governments. The Committee also notes that the Budget Policy Statement (BPS) uses a very conservative revenue growth rate in the computation of equitable revenue share. Actual revenue realisation seems to differ from the growth rate used in the BPS. Thus, the Committee recommends that the official rate of growth of revenue should be used as a minimum to compute the equitable share. This is important because the single most important factor in determining how much more additional revenue should be provided over last year for the coming financial year, is based on the growth of revenue.As much as possible, we want the Treasury to be consistent in the parameters that they use and how those parameters are arrived at. So, the actual percentages of revenue realised should be used to determine the allocation of revenue to county governments. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, there are many other recommendations regarding counties. Let me mention just two more before I conclude. The Treasury should strictly adhere to the approved county cash disbursement schedule and give it priority. In addition, there is also need to prioritize and consider critical aspects of some functions like maternity services. Last year, because of the cash crunch at the Treasury, county governments had their money delayed significantly for almost two to three months. This affected operations and led to some counties borrowing money. Even disbursement of funds for maternity and so forth were delayed. So, we have recommended that the Treasury must seriously stick to the provisions of the law, which require that they remit the money at the beginning of every month. There are resources that have been provided to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. We need to ensure that we provide money specifically to the ministry of education to ensure that each county has at least one nationally funded Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TIVET) institution. This will ensure equity in the provision of TIVET education which is critical towards the realisation of Vision 2030. As we speak, nearly 30 counties probably have TIVET centres and there are still many others that do not have. This is important because the world is moving towards technology and it is important that we have these technical colleges that are properly equipped and funded so that we can provide that. I have gone very briefly through the recommendations. There are specific recommendations that we have made with regard to some critical areas like Information and Communication Technology (ICT).We have asked the Government to prioritize allocation of money to fast-track the development of horizontal and basic infrastructure, for example, in the Konza City project that has been on for some time. We also need to ensure completion of the county connectivity project. Many of the counties are not connected up to now and they have serious challenges in terms of connectivity which affects the utilisation of Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS), operationalisation of e-procurement and so forth. I think it is very important that we enhance the implementation of the second phase of the national optic fiber backbone infrastructure so that we can address the issue of the last mile connectivity. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, let me not go through everything since Members can read the rest of the report for themselves. I want to conclude by saying that the BPS The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes"
}