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{
    "id": 798397,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/798397/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 279,
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    "content": "recurrent budget to almost 70 something per cent. When you look at the people who are being paid salaries, who are drawing the 52 per cent of the budget, how many are they? They are only 700,000 in a population of about 48 million. A total of 700,000 people are drawing 52 per cent out of that kitty and that is very unfair. Therefore, as a country, we must always strive to put more money into development. That must always be one aim so as to ensure that more money is going into development and that is why we laud the Constituency Development Fund (CDF), which is an effort to devolve money to the people who are not in formal employment in the public sector. That is why we laud devolution. It is a good attempt but there is still a problem with devolution. A lot of money is being spent on paying salaries and as a result very little money is perforating into development. By this Bill ensuring and guaranteeing wards some development money, it will be one effort of ensuring that at least some money goes directly to Wanjiku at the grass root. That point has been vindicated by the reports that I have. I want to refer you to this document by the Commission for Revenue Allocation (CRA). Page 29 of this document indicates the performance of county governments’ revenues and what percentage is going towards paying salaries and how much is going to development. It shows that very little money is going to development. Again, the County Governments Budget Implementation Review Report shows the problem that we are having. I will read Page 294 of the report by Agnes Adhiambo for the Senators to understand how big the problem of having more money being used to pay salaries other than development is. It states: “On Low Expenditure on the Development Budget, during the reporting period, the County Governments incurred an expenditure of Kshs.1.15 billion representing an absorption rate of 0.9 per cent of the County Governments’ cumulative annual development budget of Kshs.134.78 billion. This performance was a decline from an absorption rate of 8.3 per cent, reported in a similar period of FY 2016/2017 when development expenditure was Kshs.13.96 billion. This low level of development expenditure was attributed to delay in release of funds by National Treasury. The low absorption of development funds denies Kenyans the benefits to be derived from development projects such as access to quality services in the health, agriculture, roads, and education sectors. The office, therefore, recommends that counties should prioritize implementation of development projects in order to improve the standard of living for its citizens”. This Bill intends to effectuate these policy recommendations by guaranteeing development money at the ward level. As we speak, we do not have a single law that gives the guarantee that every ward gets money and the money is purely about development. When you look at this Bill, we have ensured that bureaucratic costs are at a bare minimum. If it is money for allowances, we have capped that. If is the people who can be employed to effectuate this, we have capped that in this Bill. If it is allowances, we have capped that to ensure that almost 99 per cent of what is going to be here goes to development. Therefore, this policy’s objective of the Controller of Budget will be realized by this Bill. There is also the next point of oversight by Members of County Assemblies (MCA’s). When you look at the Constitution, one of the roles of MCA’s which is very 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."
}