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{
    "id": 777074,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/777074/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 35,
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    "content": "(6) The National Treasury should collaborate with the county governments to enhance capacity building on fiscal operation and oversight for both county assemblies and county executives. This should be done through the development partners’ support, for example, the Kenya Devolution Support Programme (KDSP) (7) The Committee also recommends that the National Treasury should provide information on the criteria used in increasing some of the conditional grants such as leasing of medical equipment which is allocated Ksh4.5billion for the Financial Year 2017/18 in the Division of Revenue Act, 2017. This is in view of the fact that the 2018 BPS indicated allocation of Ksh6.1billion for the Financial Year 2017/18, and is proposing to increase to Ksh9.4billion of the Financial Year 2018/19. (8) The Commission of Revenue Allocation (CRA) should fast-track the development of the second Equalisation Fund Policy to enable full operation of the fund. We also noted that this fund has not been utilized. Out of the accumulated requirement of Ksh20 billion only Ksh12.4 billion was appropriated by the National Assembly and only Ksh1.1 billion has been used so far. This means that there are a lot of outstanding arrears. This must be properly fast-tracked for the new policy to be implemented soon. (9) The National Treasury should also fast-track the development of a borrowing framework for county governments. There is no framework though they are getting overdrafts for salaries as they say. I think that a borrowing framework must be established. This should include short-term borrowing for county governments for payment of salaries, which is often occasioned by delays in Exchequer releases. (10) The National Treasury should also review the design of the Medium-Term Debt Strategy (MTDS) to include county government’s needs and other provisions such as county debt risk management, provision of an avenue for ensuring adherence to set county debt ratios and proposals for cost effective financing mechanisms that could lessen dependence on equitable share of revenue. The counties today depend on shared revenue. (11) The National Treasury implements the debts strategy option proposed in the Medium-Term Strategy Paper and ensures that the Government’s domestic debt does not crowd out private sector borrowing. This is likely to avail more credit to the private sector and often results to expansion of activity and eventually increased Gross Domestic Product (GDP). (12) The Committee also recommends that the National Treasury should fast- track development of county government Own-Source Revenue (OSR) policies to enable counties improve revenue collection performance and efficiencies, especially through automation. The counties are often off target. They always target to collect revenues, but it is always below what they had set. A policy should be developed to make sure that this is properly done. (13) The National Treasury should also ensure that the Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS) is secure, reliable, efficient and fully integrated with other PFM systems, for example, revenue collection systems for county governments, enforcement of procurement laws to eliminate pilferage of public funds. (14) The Intergovernmental Relations Technical Committee (IGRTC) should expedite the process of identifying, verifying and validation of exact register of assets for 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."
}