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{
    "id": 646017,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/646017/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 177,
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    "content": "tendering. Once a job is given using the wrong consideration like political support, then after that there is no moral authority to enforce the contracted person to do a quality job. The contract between the two is to offer support in the following elections, not a guarantee for quality job. The whole issue is just to lure for support. One will just do some shoddy job and get as much as possible out of it. That way, nothing will accrue to the public in terms of quality service. This is where the Government authorities which were supposed to deal with this kind of things, like the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) should come in. Unfortunately, some of us have lost trust in that Commission. People have complained and a lot of information has been given to them. However, up to now, they have done nothing. It is business as usual. That is why governors are doing whatever they want to do, left, right and center. One will even get stories. We have been told that wheelbarrows have been purchased at Kshs100,000. So what? What happened after that? Nothing! That was just information. The governor is in office and everything is going on. What will stop him from doing the same thing again? When the relevant government institutions are compromised, we do not expect anybody to follow the law, because at the end of the day, you will know how to get yourself off the hook at whatever level. Much as we are saying that governors are corrupt, they are doing it because the Government machinery, which is supposed to hold them accountable, is not working. The reports by the Auditor-General’s office come in late and do not even reflect what is happening on the ground. They just go to the office and pick the paperwork. If they had a way of doing physical audits on the ground, they would realise that some projects are not there at all. In my county, the county assembly has tried to do that for one year. The report they are producing is revealing in terms of that, because they are talking of projects which have been paid for, but are not on the ground. That is one way of making sure that the public does not get any service out of these funds. We are allocating the money but nothing is being done. In some cases the projects are not done; it is only the paperwork that is done and that is what is being audited and it ends there. As much as we are allocating funds to the county governments, the relevant Government machinery which deals with enforcing laws - the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), the Procurement Oversight Authority and the Auditor-General - should do their work and make sure that these funds are put into the right use. If they are not, which most of the time is the case, the necessary action has to be taken. I support the formula and insist that the Government has to make sure that the funds that we allocate are used for the intended purpose."
}