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{
    "id": 768590,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/768590/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 75,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "to devolution other than visiting a certain corner of the county and telling people to persevere because we had little funds that you used to build a monumental stadium or the governor’s House. The Office of the Controller of Budget has given us this Report but there are questions that we need to ask the office. At the right time when we have the chance to interrogate these issues, it will be prudent to understand how they are able to allow counties to withdraw monies from their County Revenue Fund (CRF) accounts where in previous withdrawals, they do not have matching documents to show that the money that was previously withdrawn was used for the intended purpose. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the Public Finance Management (PFM) Act, 2012, envisioned the use of public resources such that you budget how you intend to spend resources of a certain county and each budgetary allocation is allocated a certain amount of money. So, each time you come for a fresh allocation as per Article 166 of The PFM Act of 2012, you are supposed to file your quarterly reports which say, for instance, if we had budgeted Kshs100 million for road infrastructure, you are coming with matching documents to show the same; that the Kshs100 million that you withdrew has been used to pay contractors who did the same work. But how we end up having pending Bills running into billions of shillings perhaps spells a more detailed problem of what is happening in the office of the Controller of Budget. It will be interesting to call officers from that particular office to explain to us how County Governments continue accessing their funds despite them not adhering to the budgeted purposes of the same monies. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the absorption rate is something that we also need to pay keen attention to because, as Senators, it is important for us to understand. I have gone to public functions before where I have heard the County Executive Committee (CEC) members in charge of finance speak; pick up a newspaper article and say: “we need to be proud as a county because our county was ranked highest among the counties that have the highest absorption rate.” While in the real context of how things are and what we are supposed to be proud of, sometimes it could also be a pointer to how bad things are in a particular county. Because if funds are arriving maybe on the first of a particular month, and by the 15th or 20th the same accounts have ran dry, it could be because work has been done or the converse could as well be true where the same money has been pilfered and work has been created. Finally as I draw to a close, Mr. Speaker, Sir, it is still a matter of great concern to us, as the Senate, where certain counties are still struggling to maintain the wage bill to be below 35 per cent. The proper intention of devolution was to change the lives of every Kenyan in this country and not a few well connected individuals who are given plum jobs in county governments. These few people then end up enriching themselves and the poor people remain in abject poverty. To have a county government in this day and age in the fifth year of devolution still having their wage bill at 40 to 42 per cent, as is the case in some of the counties that are captured in this report, is something that should be worrying us. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes"
}