Entry Instance

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

{
    "id": 693271,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/693271/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 150,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "“While providing the status report the county government did not capture the items listed below, as they are not considered capital projects, but budgeted under development as they support delivery of services.” First is an admission that they did not capture that number. That is a direct admission by the governor and the executive that there was failure to disclose a number as significant and material as Kshs352, 976,913. Even without further interrogation, there is a violation right there. That violation is admitted; that they did not capture that number, but let us also consider the reason. They say that these are capital projects, but budgeted under development. Is there any justification to exclude any projects from reporting? Yes, they were budgeted under development, but in the development status report, they failed to report them. What are capital projects? In my understanding, capital projects are in the nature of assets and value addition. If you look at the classifications given there by department, all the way up to page 5, you will see that some of these items include construction of buildings and purchase of medical and dental equipment. These are capital projects. There is no reason they should not have been reported in an annual budget implementation status report, if the governor and the executive were acting in good faith and under the duty to be accountable and open, as demanded by the Constitution. They then say that although they were budgeted under development, in their own personal opinion they were not considered. It is a personal consideration they developed or conceived and used it to justify failure to disclose and hide expenditure. We would not have known about this had these charges not been brought before the county assembly and this House. This is clear violation. I was keenly listening to the awards given to Nyeri County. I wish that one of these awards was an award for accountability. Obviously, they would not have merited that. When in your own documents you fail to report to the very people who have entrusted public trust upon you by electing you, then your governorship and leadership is no longer tenable. In that particular charge No.1 there was also failure to disclose Kshs846,702,900 in the Exchequer releases. This is a county that has some consistent hesitancy in making disclosure of the monies that come to them and how they were expended. On page 18 of the County Assembly Documents, Volume III; the Annual Budget Implementation Status Report, there is a heading ‘Financial Performance of the County During the Financial Year 2015/2016.’ Then there is a sub-heading; ‘Exchequer Releases for the Financial Year 2015/2016.’ That table runs through to page19, where the total is. There is a number given of Kshs4,840,770,000. It is written right on top. That is the amount they disclose in their report as total Exchequer releases for that financial year. They say that that is the money they have been given by the National Treasury; these are the funds that they have received for the Consolidated Fund. Contrast that with the report given by the Office of the Controller of Budget (CoB). That report is found on page 62 of the same document. That is the letter forwarding the Exchequer release report. On page 63 we have ‘Financial Year 2015/2016: Summary of the Exchequer issues for the recurrent budget. There is a column written ‘Total Exchequer issues as of 30th June 2016,’ amounting to Kshs4,366,543,000. That is the number at the bottom. When you flip over to page 64 there is the total Exchequer issues summary as at 30th June for the development budget. The first one was for the recurrent budget and at page 64 we now find the development budget. The total is Kshs1,320,929,979; that is the number given by the Office of the Controller of Budget as the total that was issued to Nyeri County. If we add the two numbers - recurrent and development budgets - the total Exchequer issues as at 30th June will be 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."
}