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"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/842609/?format=api",
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"speaker_name": "Sen. Wako",
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"legal_name": "Amos Sitswila Wako",
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"content": "Thank you, Madam Temporary Speaker, for giving me this opportunity to speak on this Report. This Report covers the financial year 2013/2014; from 1st July, 2013, to 30th June, 2014. If my memory is correct, this is one of the first annual reports that this Senate is considering. When the elections were held in 2013, the other reports that we considered were for only six months. Therefore, this report is for a full year of 12 months. Whereas the reports for the six months were a bit lenient because county governments were just settling in and some of them did not know the procedures and so on, and so forth, no such excuse can now be given when considering the Report of 2013/2014. This is because it is assumed they have settled in, they know the regulations and they will now do what they are expected to do under the Constitution, our laws, and regulations. Madam Temporary Speaker, this Report underlines some of the problems that we have in most of the counties. It underlines the fact that the county governments, in most cases, used restricted tendering almost as a normal thing. There lies an avenue where corruption comes in. We are aware that restricted tendering goes to the politically correct individuals who have formed companies for that particular tender, hence the popular word ‘tenderpreneurs,’ which comes from the word tender. Those people are given leeway where there is free use of restricted tendering. Restricted tendering is only supposed to be used in specific circumstances, and not as a norm the way Homa Bay County Government did. Nevertheless, the Committee felt that in future, the Homa Bay County Government should not do so. Madam Temporary Speaker, apart from that one problem, the other one was the issue, not just of tendering, but of not following the correct procedures. For example, the Committee interrogated the issue of street lighting. The Committee bent over backwards. We just called for evidence on that matter rather than waiting for other things, and came up with various conclusions. I want to address these conclusions in a very general way. Most of the recommendations, as you can see, were calling upon the various public bodies to do a specified act by 31st December, 2015. In other words, the Committee was telling the county governments to rectify and come up with a report on a particular issue by 31st December, 2015. We did that on almost all audit queries. On some of the recommendations, particularly those that relate to the registration of assets and liabilities of counties, it is the Transition Authority (TA) which was instructed to have that done by 31st December 2015. Madam Temporary Speaker, an issue normally arises because in normal procedures, of course, there are also some recommendations of penalizing the public officers concerned and, in fact, requiring payment of some amount. If you look at page 22 of the Report, this is a matter which relates to the irregular hire of motor vehicles. The Committee recommends that the amount of Kshs2,080,000 should be recovered from the responsible accounting officer and a recovery report submitted to the Senate by 31st December 2015. Elsewhere you will find that they are recommending that the officers 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."
}