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{
    "id": 798420,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/798420/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 302,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "get funds for their wards. With this law, they will access funds and it will also allow them to offer the primary oversight in the county government. Clause 9 of this Bill states that the funds to the wards shall be retained. This will help to deal with wastage at the county level. What is happening is that if money remains on a project, it is taken back to the Treasury and you are not sure whether other money will be released to fund that project. Initially we had so many unfinished or abandoned projects because of funds being returned to the Treasury. This law will allow funds to be taken back to the wards Fund, so that it is either reallocated to a different ongoing project or a new one or a project that had not been completed. In this Bill, administration expenses will be limited to only 1 per cent. That means that there will be more focus on development rather than what is currently happening. County governments spend 70 per cent of funds or even more on recurrent expenditure like paying salaries. There is a proposal to have a ward account in any commercial bank approved by the county treasury. I suggest that we amend this so that it is not risky because commercial banks are risky to put public funds. Banking regulations that are in the Public Finance Management (PFM) Act should be adopted in the establishment of the accounts. I also have an issue on the signatories of the Ward Development Fund Account. It is proposed that we will have the Fund manager, the committee chairperson, the project coordinator and one member appointed by the committee. I suggest that this one member should be a prominent, eminent or respectable resident of that ward to be appointed or elected by members of the public in that ward. That will offer some accountability and respect towards expenditure of the funds. The critics of this Bill have been asking the question of; who will oversight the Fund? The setup of the Ward Development Board is a good thing. Just like the National Government Constituencies Development Fund (NG-CDF) Board at the national level offers oversight for the NG-CDF, this board will also offer oversight for the Ward Development Fund. In Clause 17, we are told that the board will consist of several members. Clause 17(c) states that there will be three persons competitively recruited by the CPSB, which is basically part of the county executive. That means that the county executive will be involved in the running or management of this Fund. Madam Temporary Speaker, with those few remarks, I beg to support. I thank you"
}