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{
    "id": 768631,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/768631/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 116,
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    "content": "budget has been approved and is almost fully funded, then if there is any pending bill it should be the deficit in terms of funding. This is unless that county was not following the budget the way they have passed themselves. I had the benefit of working in the government in the old system where at the end of the financial year on 30thJune; whatever you had not expended would not be available for you the next year. In this case, whatever is in the County Revenue Fund will still be available. For example, if I look at my county’s budget for the year under review in the Report, it has Kshs5.59 billion as equitable share; Kshs160 million as conditional grants; Kshs120 million, local revenue and Kshs939 million carry over. If there were any pending bills in that county then Kshs939million should be the maximum because that is what was not delivered in the other financial year. Therefore, there must be some way of naming the aspect of carrying over, because they could be expenditures which were incurred without having any provisions for them. This is a case where the money was in the account, but by the close of the financial year, works had been procured but not paid for. So we have to get a name for it, because we know what pending bills are and the challenges we had before with them, where everybody was spending without any budgetary provision. At the end of the day, this country went through a lot of exercise trying to clear these pending bills. But this is not actually what is being referred to here. If my understanding of this Report is correct, these could be the funds which were not expended by 30th June. We have also learnt that sometimes counties do not get their funds on time. Therefore, the low absorption rates could be because of the timing. In the last financial year county governments were getting money even as late as 30th June. We know that the IFMIS closes by the midnight of 30th June and, therefore, that money will not be spent. But the Controller of Budget Report will say that, that money was available to the counties. That is being defeatist. They should give the money on time. We have approved the disbursement schedule and do not have anything on 30th June. The Government also should follow what we approve from this House. Lastly, there is the issue of how the counties are spending. It may appear that they are spending on development, but what actually is that development? They may have the benefit of doing a County Integrated Development Plan (CIDP), but where I come from basic infrastructure is not there. I am talking about water, health facilities and roads. There must be a prioritized way of spending, so that at the end of 5 years, we can say that, for example, in the water and health sectors, we started here and we have now moved to this level. At least, we will have something to build on. According to this Report, there is the question of what they are spending this development funds on. That is why one of the Senators referred to projects and big buildings which actually do not impact the rural person in the village. If it is the health sector there must be a systematic way of planning. There should be a dispensary at the village which must have a maternity wing. At the divisional level there must be a health centre which should have some bed capacity. Then there must be a hospital at the sub- county level which feeds into a Level 5 hospital at the county level. That way, we will have a systematic way of developing. For the last five years most counties have been The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes"
}