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{
    "id": 842583,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/842583/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 201,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Let us add value in the kind of reports we are creating. I understand that maybe the workload is making the latent talents of the Members not to come out in what they can do. Madam Temporary Speaker, legal fees is a problem in many counties. In fact, it has been a conduit to siphon money by using friends to bring legal claims. Through these legal claims the governor gets money.Despite the fact that documentation has not been provided, lawyers have a standard of how much they should charge for what service; there are limits. Was that looked at by the Committee? If you just go step by step, they are the same issues. As you move ahead, it is just the amounts that become smaller. I can even see – and I do not want to impute improper motives on the staff in your Committee – that when the person who wrote this Report reached Committee recommendations just pressed “Control V” and pasted the words: “The Committee recommends that the audit query remains unresolved until--- Madam Temporary Speaker, most of the recommendations are just the same. Let us find a way to go more into value for money audits. If the Auditor-General’s Office needs more money or we need to build the capacity, let us have that discussion. The reason why many of these Auditor-General’s reports will not come with the truth that people feel on the ground, is that many of the auditors in the counties are receiving hospitality from the governors. The Office of the Auditor-General does not have enough vehicles and some auditors do not even have office space. Therefore, you will find that the Governor for Siaya or Homa Bay counties, for example, are the ones taking care of everything for the auditors who go there. That is why reports come out very rosy. Madam Temporary Speaker, I hope that this County has improved in terms of the queries for the Financial Year 2013/2014. I am not aware, but I hope that we have set standards, since we had the same problem in Nairobi City County with regard to the Speaker’s house. I do not understand why public officers realise that they need a house when they become Speakers and Governors. We are not staying on trees. I am a Senator who does not have an official residence, but I do not live on a tree. Why should I use taxpayers’ money to get an official residence, yet this is a temporary job? Let us leave official residences to the President, Deputy President, maybe the Chief Justice and leaders of the arms of Government. Why does a speaker need to get an official residence such that you spend Ksh150 million in a county where young people are jobless and women cannot even get market to sell their produce? Similarly, we do not have social halls and our young people are getting into drugs in Nairobi. Why would we allocate money for a speaker to have a residence worth Ksh150 million? That is nonsense. It just shows that we have lost focus and credibility as a people. It just shows that we focus on ourselves as opposed to focusing on the real needs of wananchi . Madam Temporary Speaker, devolution was brought to ensure that people participate in making decisions and that is why we devolved power and money. Power is the ability to get things done and it is not showing people chase cars and a big house. We did not devolve the fact that there will be someone in the County who is a Speaker or a Governor with 30 cars. I keep repeating the principle of subsidiarity, because we do not get it most times. A service is best offered at the lowest level compatible with the benefit area of that service. People in Mukuru should be able to decide because a one size fits all 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."
}