Entry Instance

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

{
    "id": 680028,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/680028/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 57,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, the report talks about a substantial amount of money that have been divided into 12 disbursements going directly into the counties. It is important for the county managers to note that these disbursements are not equal. There are those who believe that they will divide the Kshs280 billion equitable share equally into 12 months. This is not the case. It is important for managers, especially those who are managing the finances; the finance officers and County Executive Committee members (CECs) responsible for finance to take note of the fact that the disbursements are made in accordance with the revenue collections by the national Government. Therefore, they will not be exactly equal. This is important because of cash flow management in the counties where some counties are spending more money that they are supposed to have spent on a particular month thinking that equal amounts would come in the next one month. It is also important for us to note that the conditional share from the national Government is basically the amount comprising of the Kshs4.5 billion, that is leasing of health care equipment. This money will not go directly into the counties. Further, the Kshs4.31 billion is related to road levy maintenance. This amount will not be divided equally into the months. Kshs4 billion has been allocated to Level 5 hospitals. This will be divided equally. Let us also not forget that this year we allocated some Kshs200 million that is supposed to be a grant to support Lamu and Tana River counties specifically to deal with insecurity. One of the observations of the disbursements of 2014/2015 Financial Year was that there is some amount of about Kshs32.89 billion that is still lying in the National Treasury, having not been spent. This amount, in the context of our development, is a huge amount of money. The opportunity cost forgone because of not using that money is substantial. There is need for the National Treasury to advise us as a Committee on Finance, Commerce and Budget why this money is still lying there. Part of it in my view, has to do with the method of procurement. Procurement laws are clear. You cannot advertise or process a procurement of anything unless the money is already there. So, the time to advertise and procure takes so long that sometimes that money is lying in the National Treasury especially if there is objection and the procurement authority does not clear any question in adequate time. Mr. Speaker, Sir, pending bills have been in existence for the last two or three years. We continue to accumulate them. We have an interesting situation where in 2013/2014; some contractors were contracted without due process. In other words, the county government continues with the habit of local governments; they simply told some contractors to go ahead and start building murram roads without following the procurement process. So, in some instances, for example, in Nyeri County, we have situations where some people were contracted but have not been paid since 2013/2014. The reason is; they have no documentations to show that they finished the construction. Members of County Assembly (MCAs) know very well that the roads were given to these contractors. We have a situation where we are using some roads that were built by an individual company but it cannot get paid. Therefore, the question is from a moral stand point. Can we deny that a road was built yet it was built irrespective of whether the procedure was followed or not? In our recommendations, we have said that there is need for the Public Procurement Oversight 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"
}