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"id": 833221,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/833221/?format=api",
"text_counter": 210,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Kitui Central, WDM-K",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Makali Mulu",
"speaker": {
"id": 1955,
"legal_name": "Benson Makali Mulu",
"slug": "benson-makali-mulu"
},
"content": "websites. If you want to read the reports, you can do it on the website and if you want, you can even print from your computer. In this era of iPads, and you can see even this Chamber has iPads, it is easier for me to read that report on my iPad rather than a hard copy. That is an area in which we can save a lot of resources for this country. The other important thing is the issue of reorganisation of Government through the Executive Order, which to some extent has created some independent departments. That has introduced what I would call new AIE holders; officers who now have authority to incur expenditure. So, there is a bit of reorganisation which is for the benefit of Kenyans. We wanted to make sure that service provision by the Government is more efficient. So, this is another area we support as the Budget and Appropriations Committee. It is important that, as we move forward, the National Treasury thinks of a way of ensuring that we have many more of this kind of arrangement so that people can access resources without a lot of bureaucracy in the system. Now I want to go to the last point which I think is very important. This is to do with the reduction of money to the county governments. This House passed the Committee of Supply report which means we cannot change it. So, what I am going to say is for the future. As we move to the second Supplementary Estimates, what I am going to say needs to be considered. I just want to share some statistics. Last year in December when we started the budget process, revenue projection was about Kshs1.7 trillion. Around February when we got the Budget Policy Statement (BPS), revenue projection was reduced to Kshs1.6 trillion. As a result of that reduction, there was negotiation on how much goes to the county governments. That is the time the figure of Kshs314 billion was agreed on at the Inter-governmental Budget and Economic Council. Come June, we revised the revenue projection upwards again to Kshs1.7 trillion. From that review, it is only the national Government which increased their figure. County governments figures were not affected; they still remained at Kshs314 billion. Come September, as a result of not approving the Finance Bill, revenue projection was reduced once again to Kshs1.6 trillion, which means the revenue projection which was used to allocate Kshs314 billion to the county governments is the same figure which we are now working with. So, in reality, we do not have a justification to reduce the money for county governments and, more so, the equitable share. What am I saying? I am saying that if we were fair, and the law says it very clearly, where we fall short of revenue in terms of collection, it is the national Government that should take that shortfall so that we do not interfere with the money for county governments. Now we have reduced their allocation by Kshs9 billion. My appeal, as we move to the future and do the second Supplementary Estimates, it is important that the county governments are given back the Kshs9 billion. Why am I saying that? When you do the analysis, in the last financial year, the county governments were given Kshs302 billion. This financial year, once you remove the Kshs9 billion, they will be getting Kshs305 billion, an addition of only Kshs3 billion, translating to 1 per cent of the change of revenue which is about Kshs310 billion. This is an area where we need to help the county governments so that the national Government does not take advantage of the arrangement and punish them. The other thing is that when you look at the conditional grants which have been sent to the county governments by the national Government, they amount to a lot of money. My proposal would be, in a situation where we want to touch the county governments’ allocation because the conditional grants are national Government allocations, they should then target the conditional grants for reduction. One of the areas being proposed is the leasing of medical equipment. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}