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{
    "id": 842547,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/842547/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 165,
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    "content": "be looking at operational and transactional elements of oversight; whereas the Senate should be focused on the performance audits and looking at bigger issues. We believe that county assemblies should carry out primary oversight while the Senate carries out secondary oversight. In the case of the Report for Nakuru County, I want to encourage the County Assembly of Nakuru and its Public Accounts Committee – which is chaired by a gentleman called Peter Mwamba Kajwang’ – to do their job and make sure that the recommendations of the Auditor-General for this particular year and subsequent years are dealt with. Madam Temporary Speaker, we have received some good suggestions on how to move ahead. However, the Committee has also been thinking about many suggestions. One of my Members, Senator Olekina, has been thinking about an Audit and Oversight Bill. Therefore, there are certain initiatives that we will bring to this House very soon. We need a Public Audit Procedures Bill or public audit regulations that will define the scope and draw the line between the role of the Senate and county assemblies as far as the audit of the county accounts are concerned. Madam Temporary Speaker, we also need to establish an office of legislative auditswithin Parliament. We established a Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) because we realised that parliamentarians are not experts in budget matters. We set up the PBO to support Parliament in the budget role. Parliamentarians are not necessarily auditors; in fact we have only a handful of Certified Public Accountants (CPAs) or internal and external auditorsin this House. We need to build capacity internally. Madam Temporary Speaker, I was part of a delegation that went to several states in the United States of America (USA), and we could see the commonality across most of these States. At the state legislature level, there is an office of legislative audits. What would this office do? For instance, the Senator for Nairobi wanted a special audit on Nairobi County revenue. If you go to the Auditor-General he will tell you stories about budgets and remind you that parliamentarians are the ones who are not giving him an adequate budget. But if he had an in-house office of legislative audits, it could draw a program of audits that it could conduct at the behest of the Members of the House. Madam Temporary Speaker, my Committee has discussed with the Auditor- General on the need to carry out a performance audit on the health sector. We believe that the Government has good intentions of providing universal health to all citizens, but health is devolved. Therefore, before we allocate money in the name of universal healthcare, it would be important to conduct a special audit on the investments in the counties. We have said a lot of things about the Managed Equipment Services scheme and how expensive it is for counties. The Auditor-General has considered this proposal and it is something that we will be moving forward with, regarding definition of scope, timelines and financing, because it cost some money. We hope that the first performance audit done in this House will be tabled within this Session. Finally, Madam Temporary Speaker, we want to make sure that this House and Committee does not play the role of a mortician, but a more proactive role of physicians. That will only come true when we establish the Monitoring and Evaluation Fund or put 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."
}