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{
    "id": 736954,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/736954/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 139,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Ogolla",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1264,
        "legal_name": "Gideon Ochanda Ogolla",
        "slug": "gideon-ochanda-ogolla"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker. I rise to support the Bill based on the procedure that is at hand. However, I want to quickly mention one or two things that, in my view, will help us as we move forward in terms of how the Division of Revenue Bill might be handled in future. I think there are many other things that if we are not careful, we will be in this game of back and forth for a much longer time than would be useful to the country. One thing that is important is that we have been on an incremental arrangement with the amount of money or the funds that we have been giving to the counties over the last three years. There is not a single year that we have gone below the subsequent years. This is something that needs to be appreciated. However, as we do this, one or two things need to be mentioned. First, the Senate does not go through the kind of pain this House goes through in terms of managing or handling the Budget process. We should subject the Senate to some good amount of pain to understand what we go through as a House. If we do that, they will understand rather than come up with figures that it is supposed to be 38 or the other figures without looking through in terms of what the other factors are being looked at. It is one thing that is taking us back. The Senate has had clamour to increase this amount of money. For example, if they bothered to explain at one moment that they have looked at Article 203 of the Constitution, they would have indicated very clearly the reasons why some of this money is required. That might have been a much more useful way of looking at it rather than just coming up with global figures from one year to the other that this time it was this and next year it must be that. In a similar manner, the Commission for Revenue Allocation needs to adjust. Partly, they are also misleading the Senate because for quite a bit of time, the Senate wants to be closer to their figures in terms of when we are looking at the issue of the division of revenue. If the Senate bothered to look at Article 203 of the Constitution, there would be a basis of increasing the money. An example would be based on the need for economic optimisation of each country, that if counties came up with some kind of creative ways of how they wanted to optimise in terms of their economic arrangement, that would have been a much better reason of coming up with different figures from time to time or coming up with new amounts. When you look at it, the process of transferring functions has not been properly completed in this country. The process of costing these functions has not been properly competed in this country. So, when each year we want money to go to the counties and we are not too sure whether those functions were transferred, we are doing a big blunder. The issue of funds needs to go punch by punch with functions. That if we gave this function to the county governments, we costed that function and we know the amount of money it needs. Then we follow that with money and/or complaining that that money has not been transferred. It makes more sense than the way we are handling it as a country at the moment, particularly how the Senate is looking at it. The other thing that I think, is a big problem is exactly the kind of a pain I mentioned earlier. Articles 221 and 222 of the Constitution give the National Assembly a lot more roles in terms of looking at the Budget of this country. The Cabinet Secretary in charge of Finance tables before the National Assembly the Estimates each year. This does not happen at any moment with the Senate. The Senate does not have equivalence where, for example, accumulative presentations of the 47 counties are placed in front of them indicating that these were the expected expenditures and revenues such that they can balance themselves. When the Senate 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."
}