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{
    "id": 804997,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/804997/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 62,
    "type": "other",
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    "content": "of the county government. So, we did not want to bring a competing force, superiority or other aspects that may undermine the office. We, therefore, recommended that Clause 10 be deleted. Now that the CPSB is the one that will ensure that they advise, participate in litigation and represent the county in court, we thought that it is important to delete it so that we give time. We are giving an opportunity to the CPSB to restructure its administrative unit of the County Attorney, County Solicitor and the County Legal Advisor. I gave an overview of the entire Bill yesterday. In Clause 11, we have ensured the common practice; that so long as you are a public servant, according to the code of ethics of any profession in this country, you are not supposed to engage in gainful employment. We agreed that sometimes counties might need to outsource legal advice or services out of necessity. This is just to ensure that there is no other gainful employment to avoid conflict of interest. We have, therefore, retained that as it is, so that we protect and ensure that these people do not misuse the office of the County Attorney. The part reads:- “The County Attorney, the County Solicitor and the County Legal Counsel shall not engage in other gainful employment that may result in conflict of interest.” I think this is very important so that county attorneys, county solicitors or county legal counsel are stopped from participating in some of those processes. Regarding the issue of resignation, we agree that the County Attorney will address his or her resignation to the Governor. This is because upon the appointment by the CPSB by competitive process, the appointing authority is the Governor. Therefore, we think we need the County Attorney, County Solicitor and the County Legal Counsel to go ahead and write to the appointing authority, and that is the Governor. As a Committee, we felt that it should remain that way so that we ensure it is proper. It is tied with Clause 13 on the issues of removal from office. We have borrowed heavily from the common practice that even our Constitution has provided for. These are grounds such as bankruptcy, gross misconduct, being of unsound mind, among other grounds. We emphasized yesterday that Chapter Six of the Constitution on leadership and integrity is very important, going forward, given the fact that the country is now struggling with corruption and other issues. Therefore, the threshold of Chapter Six is very high and even that of the Leadership and Integrity Act. Under Clause 16, because I wanted to highlight a few key areas for our colleagues and even us, we have provided the engagement of a consultant. We realised that there are some instances when county governments want to outsource legal services because sometimes the capacity within the legal unit of the County Attorney, County Solicitor or County Legal Counsel, becomes a challenge. So, we have provided that any person to provide legal services for the county must ensure that the County Attorney approves. Therefore, we agreed that in line with that, we put it that way. Clause 16(3) reads:- 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."
}