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{
    "id": 706792,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/706792/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 216,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Cheptumo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 50,
        "legal_name": "William Cheptumo Kipkiror",
        "slug": "william-kipkiror"
    },
    "content": "Section 24 of the Public Finance Management Act of 2012. Upon going through the Regulations, we noted that the relevant law should have been the Parliamentary Service Act and, therefore, we had a lengthy discussion among us as a Committee. It is important for this House to know that we have a Committee in the Senate dealing with the monitoring and evaluation led by Hon. Kiraitu Murungi and we had a meeting with them. It is chaired by Hon. Kiraitu Murungi and the Deputy Speaker, Kembi Gitura. We discussed with them and finally agreed that they need to reform those regulations and come up with fresh ones under the Parliamentary Service Commission Act. That was done. The Regulations before the House are what was published after revoking the previous ones. It is important for my colleagues and the House to note that these Regulations attached to the Report have seven parts. Part I deals with the citation and interpretation. Part II deals with general provisions, that is, on monitoring, evaluation and objectives. I do not intend to go through all this because Members have done so. We have attached it to the Report. Part III deals with the administration of the Fund. All the way to Part VII deals with miscellaneous provisions. We have two schedules. Schedule 1 deals with the formula for allocating monies among the elected Senators and Schedule 2 deals with conditions for disbursements. We, therefore, went through these Regulations as a Committee and it became clear to us that the objectives are very noble and good. They are intended to enable the Senate to oversee the county governments in ensuring that they spend the taxpayers’ money in a way that is prudent. They are very noble because we know in this country that we have had serious cases where public funds have been misused. Many governors have appeared before the Committee of Senate to answer questions on misuse of funds. So, this is a very noble idea. Unfortunately, noble and good as it appears, there are certain provisions of the law that these Regulations have not complied with. I would like to refer Members to page 11 of the Report. If you read Item No.61, Public Finance Management Regulation 15 Section 207 of the Public Finance Management Regulations 2015, any fund established in that nature and any other fund that is established must comply with certain requirements. Let me refer to a few of the aspects raised in Regulation No.207 of the Public Finance Management Regulations of 2015. The Cabinet Secretary (CS) is required to certify in writing that the functions and public services to be delivered through the fund cannot be delivered through the structure of budget appropriations. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, as a Committee, we were not supplied with certification in writing from the Cabinet Secretary (CS) to confirm that the Fund cannot be delivered through the structure of Budget appropriations. The establishment of the Fund shall provide clear justification as to why a fund structure is deemed appropriate for improved service delivery in light of the legislative and policy mandate of the national Government entity. The administration cost of the Fund shall be a maximum of 3 per cent of the approved Budget of the Fund. More importantly is Item No.5 of Regulation 207 which states that the CS responsible for the national Government entity functions shall confirm in writing that the establishment of the Fund and its continued existence will not depend on annual financing from the national Exchequer. The entire provision of Regulation 205 was not complied with when these Regulations were being prepared. I do not want to go down. If you read from Item one to six, it is clear that there are very fundamental provisions which should have been complied with by the regulation-making authority. As I read earlier, if the Committee is satisfied that the Regulations do not comply or are inconsistent with the Constitution, the parent Act under which they are made or with any other The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}