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{
    "id": 734094,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/734094/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 195,
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    "content": "including Mr. Samuel Kioko, Ms. Wambura, Ms. G. Njambi and Mr. Elias Kariuki with a view to recover the money and prosecute those responsible. The law on imprest is very clear that when you are advanced imprest, you should surrender it within 48 hours of finishing the activity. If you hold it longer that, then it becomes a loan and the terms of any loan is that you must pay interest. We have seen a very common pattern in counties where people take imprest, stay with it for months or even years without surrendering it which is against Government regulations and the Public Finance Management Act. Obviously, as a Committee, we have to obey the law and make recommendations accordingly. This will serve as a warning to further financial discipline in counties. If we make very clear and strong recommendations now we shall be in a position to avoid mal- practices subsequently. We hope that this will help improve performance in counties particularly performance on financial management. I know that the Committee is soon going to embark on looking at the audit queries of 2014/2015 and from what we have seen, there are even more travesties in counties in the second financial year. There is misappropriation, misuse of funds, wanton use of revenue at source when locally collected and mis-receipting of revenue received. This will come up when we look at the 2014/2015 Financial Year. The Committee will be rather tough. In the first year, maybe, we could have been lenient because it was the first year in office but we will be tougher when we come to the second year of office of county governments. Madam Temporary Speaker, when we come to Tana River County, we made some recommendations regarding procurement of road works. One area that has been notorious in county government is what we call “tenderpreneureship” where county governments pay a lot of attention to infrastructure. Road construction is definitely very important in our counties and people should have good infrastructure. However, you do not just throw money around. People are building roads with very little mechanism to ensure that work is done properly and people get value for money. I am sure Sen. (Eng.) Muriuki will talk about this when it comes to Nyandarua County. This is a serious matter. Governors boast of having built 6000km of road but what type of roads are we talking about and at what cost? Was there a better way of using that money rather than putting it on a road that when it rains, it is no longer there? Can we use more money building fewer roads that are more durable? In the case of Tana River County, we observed that the documents availed to us for auditing road works were not there. The evidence that good work was done was very difficult to come by. These are some of the things that we have made very serious observations on and we shall continue to discuss as we look at other counties. While on procurement, observing the Public Procurement and Disposal Act 2005 is a very important because it is at the center of the breach of a lot of procedures. That Act tells Government officials very clearly how to procure services and goods and how to dispose off assets whenever necessary. The guidelines and the rules are very clear but they are much more observed by not observing them. In the case of Tana River County we found that there was no evidence or prior approval of the use of restricted mode of tendering in an unjustified way. That is why rent seeking is around the corner and people want to have shortcuts and 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"
}