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{
    "id": 780213,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/780213/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 258,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "flash around is Cap 265 of the Local Government Act, which gave immense authority to the Minister for Local Government to administer the county governments. However, now we have governments established by the Constitution at the county level. These are governments in every sense. Therefore, they should be responsible for whatever mess they create even after they leave the office. I would like to see some amendments to ensure that a governor who has been in office and misappropriated resources - and cannot account for assets and liabilities - is held to account for all those mistakes and messes that have been done, rather than waiting for the new governor who comes in and takes the blame and responsibility. All we will be told - particularly for those of us who are in the County Public Accounts and Investments Committee – is that they are not privy to that action. Fortunately, the Bill is coinciding with a time when the majority of governors will have served their second and final terms. Therefore, we must pass a legislation that will spell out the kind of records that the outgoing governors will be handing over to the new governors-elect. Unless, we seal that loophole we will see at the end of the term people spending without any rules of engagement because the Chief Officers and CECs are under their watch. Once they know that they will be members of this committee on assumption of office of the new governor, they will do anything and no information will be available. We must have a clause that binds the incoming governor and outgoing governor in terms of the report that he must give before he leaves the office. Somewhere during the committee stage, we should bring a report that will be acceptable to strengthen the internal audit system, so that we call upon the internal auditors to give a final report towards the end of the term of a governor, which will be available during the assumption of office of the new governor-elect. This will ensure that he or she knows what kind of liabilities and assets he or she is inheriting and what kind of messes or good work has been done by the outgoing governor. So, we have to tie the two of them so that we do not have difficulties in terms of accountability of the resources of any given county. In between the election period, these issues that arise on the vacancy of the office have been well treated in this Bill. I have no difficulty with that. The difficulty I have is in regard to the new set of governors who will assume office in 2022. This is because quite a majority of the governors will be deemed to have served their final term. With that in mind, somewhere along the line we will have to get somebody who will be responsible for the development of the report. We should provide in this Bill, particularly towards the end of the second term of a governor, what kind of reports they will give to the new governors-elect when they assume office. It is important to tie the two together, so that we know how to deal with this problem. Thirdly, I have observed that we do not have clear records of assets and liabilities. There are many middle men and women who are destroying the assets of counties, particularly houses, plots and investments that the county councils might have invested in. There are also the trust lands which somehow are not on record. Therefore, one of the things we should tighten up as Senate is how the assets and liabilities of any given county government are being handled. 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."
}