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{
    "id": 787901,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/787901/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 546,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Madam Temporary Speaker, looking at this Bill and taking into consideration that resources in our country are limited, an attempt had been made to increase this figure because of inflation rate and other issues. However, we, in the Senate Committee on Finance and Budget, differed a little with the Treasury on this figure. However, our report will be tabled before you and you will see we had no intention of raising it given the status of our economy. When this Bill is passed, it is important that the monies that get to the counties are utilised for the purposes for which they are allocated. As the Mover of the Motion said, the issue of oversight by the Senate is very important and we have fully engaged the National Assembly. Although in the previous estimates in the Budget making for the Parliament, Senate did not have a direct input, here we are proposing money for monitoring, evaluation and operational cost of the Senate. We want this to be taken into account so that the Senate can do its work properly. We hope that our colleagues in the National Assembly will act in good faith and make sure our proposals are taken on board so that we do our work properly. The conditional grants that have been allocated to the counties have been enumerated very well in the Bill. There is a new one which is the Kenya Urban Support Programme which is allocated over Kshs11 billion. This is a new allocation which was signed between the Treasury and the International Development Association (IDA). They were supposed to introduce part of it this financial year. They requested us to amend the County Allocation of Revenue Act (CARA), but we told them we could not so. I can see they have put a sum of over Ksh11 billion. Going forward, we, as a Committee, think that a lot of monies on conditional grants are channeled through Ministries to counties. However, we are not sure if those monies actually get to the counties. We propose to engage these Ministries even at the time of printed estimates so that we can oversight them. This is to ensure that monies that have been actually put in the budget for the purpose of going to the counties, conditional grants as they said, actually go there. We do not want it just to be on paper and money is used for something else. This is something that we are going to take up as a Senate Committee on Finance and Budget. Madam Temporary Speaker, there a few questions about clarity in terms of what is being done. The medical equipment that is given to the counties; the monies that are being paid over the years I think was Ksh4.5 billion in the last three years. This time it is Ksh9.4 billion. We have queried it. We intend to query it further so that we know we are surely paying for something which is proper and not exaggerated. I am also told also maybe other hospitals have been added, but we will check. With regard to Level Five Hospitals, the figure for last year has been increased again. I am told one more hospital was added. These hospitals are the seven former provincial hospitals, including Machakos, Embu and others. We are now adding Kiambu General Hospital to this category. The figure for these hospitals has risen by a slight figure which is Kshs126 million more than what was here last year. This is the explanation we are getting. We want to see that all these money goes to the counties so that it is properly utilised. There is a lot of clamour and request for money. We, in Senate, would like to see counties have a lot of money"
}