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{
    "id": 803437,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/803437/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 324,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Governments Act of 2012 which makes reference to publication for documentation from the county in a County Gazette .That was either an assumption that got forgotten along the line or a statement for which proper legislation has not been put into place to ensure that the County Printer is put in place. I think this is what this Bill seeks to do. It is important and well contextualised. We must also note that county legislation does not take effect unless published in the Gazette . This becomes a quagmire in terms of legislation, especially in the counties. This is because, for most of the legislation, they have had to rely on the Government Printer nationally. You can imagine the logistics of doing this for 47 counties and the level of work that it means in terms of bringing it all to one place. This Bill envisages a situation where the 47 counties have a County Printer who can do that work. It goes on to tell us how this will be done - the person to be appointed and their qualifications. The person should have a degree in the relevant matters of printing and publishing and have knowledge and experience of at least five years. Apart from that experience, some sort of extra training willalso need to be done. This is because printing work, especially for government printers at that level is very sensitive. Going through the Bill, I felt that an element of oversight needs to be there. For example, I have not seen the penalty for a County Printer who just goes and prints his own things. Believe me, it can happen. There should be an element of control. There is no provision for a penalty. I, therefore, think there is an element of oversight needed. There needs to be some sort of twining of this County Printer, maybe to the county assembly or to the county executive but I am not exactly sure to who. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, as we think about moving an amendment and how to tighten this, it is important not to leave this person just on their own. They should have at least five years’ experience; maybe even seven would be better. They should also have an element of training that will put them directly with the Government Printer so that they are able to go through it in detail. The County Printer will have a lot of responsibilities. He or she will be the head of the Office of the County Printer and will be responsible for administration, organisation and control of staff in the office. He or she will be in charge of management of funds, property and affairs, implementation of policies and programmes of the office and development of operational plans for achieving the objectives of the office. He will, therefore, have a lot of work to do within that office. This office will also need responsible people who can work within that realm. Yesterday, while Senators were contributing to this, there was need for competitive recruitment that should be done by the County Public Service Board (CPSB). We have been talking about workforce within the counties and the number of people employed. Yesterday, it was mentioned, and I want to reiterate, if there is somebody who can do the five jobs, let them do it so that we do not go and bloat the employment sector within the counties since they have too many workers, doing work that can be done by one person. If well-coordinated, the work of five people can be done by one person. This should, therefore, not be looked at as an opportunity to bring in more work force just for the sake of it, but to bring a workforce that will do the work appropriately. 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."
}