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{
    "id": 842455,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/842455/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 73,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "When I went home I thought about the whole issue of health having been devolved. Should the county governor have come out and told us that he had uncovered all those things or should he have gone there to fix that problem? Or is it that he does not have any money? Is it that when we approve this schedule, the money is not disbursed to the county government on time for them to come up with plans? Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, as we sit here as a House, it is important that we not only approve this schedule but we also come up with a mechanism of ensuring that we can oversight the funds that we release to the county governments. Everything looks very good on paper. I dare say that in Kenya, we are continually benefitting and relying heavily on donor funds rather than the equitable share. Those are conditional grants which are given on certain projects. Should we cut down on our expenditure? There is this debate on 8 per cent VAT; I really pity the President. I feel bad that we as Kenyans have to pay more but I also see where the President is coming from in terms of how he has to pay off these loans. As I support this, I encourage this House to start thinking more on how we will follow up to ensure that these county governments receive their money. The Public Finance Management (PFM) Act and the regulations are very clear; that, the county governments must do reconciliation on a monthly basis. Should this reconciliation only be for the expenses or should it also be for the money that they receive from the national Government? We can spend a lot of time but until the time that this Senate will have its own kitty, then they can follow up to ensure that the county governments receive money from the national Government on time. When they spend the money, they can give the reconciliation accounts on a monthly basis. The biggest problem we have in the Committee that I sit in; the County Public Accounts and Investments Committee (CPAIC), is that when governors appear before us they say, we have not received the money. When we call the National Treasury, they tell us there is no reason as to why these county governments should say they have pending bills because we sent money when they were supposed to receive money. So, who is telling the truth? Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, Clause 7 of this Bill provides for the publishing of monthly reports by the national Government on actual transfers of all allocations to county governments. I am of the opinion that this Clause ought to be amended to include reconciliation from the county government to show the money that they have received so that we can know who is not doing their job. On the other issue, I was quite pleased to see that there will be a lot of money which will be disbursed out to take care of agriculture and help farmers to improve on their products. I am quite happy to note that Narok County will receive a lot of money to help improve agriculture. The only way that we can ascertain value for money is if this House goes in and carries out an audit to ensure that whatever is sent out really benefits the farmers. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, with those few remarks, I beg to support the Committee report fully. I hope that the amendments which have been proposed by the Committee which has done a very good job, will be put in place; especially on the issue of the 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."
}