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{
    "id": 798985,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/798985/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 210,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
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    "content": "Secondly, they also informed us that that they had received a conditional allocation of Kshs880 million for the Financial Year 2018/2019 on water tower protection and climate change mitigation and adoption programme for the Ministry of Environment and Forestry of the European Union (EU) from an agreement signed in 2014. A total of 11 county governments which host our water towers will benefit from this fund. Thirdly, the national Treasury informed us that there is a conditional allocation of Kshs1.854 billion for the Financial Year 2018/2019 for the Kenya Urban Support Program. The national Treasury had initially asked us to include Kshs927 million, but they have now doubled it to be included in this financial year. However, it is important to know that these figures were not in Division of Revenue Act (DORA). We enacted the Division of Revenue Bill, which became law. You will note that the DORA provides a financial framework within which the CRA should operate, within which the law we are making now applies. The County Allocation of Revenue Bill must reflect what is provided in the DORA; this will necessitate amendments to the DORA in 2018. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Committee has initiated the process to amend the DORA – which was enacted and assented to a few weeks ago by His Excellency the President – to include these figures. The proposed figures will raise the figure from Kshs372 billion which goes to the counties to about Kshs376 billion, which is about Kshs 4 billion more. It will, therefore, be prudent for this House to fast track that amendment of the Division of Revenue Act 2018 to ensure that the conditional grants meant for county governments are incorporated. The only amendment that we are making is that of provision of more money to the counties. Because the mandate of the Senate is to work for the interest of the counties and their people, we should add them whatever extra money we can get. In fact, the Bill should have already been published. The ceilings for county assemblies and executives on Schedule Four that I discussed at length have to be amended to accommodate the following provisions:- (a) Committee sitting allowance based on 12 months as opposed to 10.5 months as provided by Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA). (b) The allowances of Members of County Assemblies (MCAs) that were enforced prior to Gazette Notice No.6518 of 2017. (c) The salaries of county assemblies staff since it was based on the optimal staffing levels instead of actual number of staff establishment. We want the actual numbers of staff establishment to be budget for and not on optimal level. Those that are in place must be paid. (d) Approve the County Assembly Service Board (CASB) to make arrangements within the next three years to ensure that staffing levels are rationalized, so that they only hire people that they can pay. In that regard, a county must be careful not to engage staff who are not necessary. As we move forward, it is important to maintain our ratio of development expenditure to recurrent expenditure. Counties are required to use 30 per cent development expenditure and 70 per cent recurrent expenditure. However, there is a lot of distortion today and nobody is meeting those requirements. 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"
}