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{
    "id": 868776,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/868776/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 207,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Garissa Township, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Aden Duale",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 15,
        "legal_name": "Aden Bare Duale",
        "slug": "aden-duale"
    },
    "content": " Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I beg to move that the Public Finance Management (Amendment) Bill of 2017 be now read a Second Time. This Bill has stayed in this House for too long. In fact, it was disappearing from the rolls of Bills from the Government. We have agreed with the Committee and Hon Makali Mulu, who had a lot of interest in it, that we do the Second Reading and then proceed to the Committee stage. It is a very important Bill and even part of what we are going to do here will concern county governments. So, it will end up in the Senate. This amendment Bill to the Public Finance Management Act has one principal object, namely, to amend the Public Finance Management Act No.18 of 2012 in order to ensure the smooth implementation of the Act. These amendments are informed by the lessons learnt during the implementation of the Act at both levels of Government. So, the implementation of the PFM Act No.18 of 2012, the lessons learnt, the challenges faced, and the gaps realised has informed the Government and more so the National Treasury to come up with this amendment Bill. Whatever is being envisaged here will affect the operation of the Public Finance Management Act at both levels of the Government, namely, the county governments and the national Government. The experience that we have had demands that we amend this Act in order to facilitate an efficient and an effective service delivery to the general public. So, the proposed amendment to this Act adopts an approach to financial management. The PFM Act is mainly about prudent financial management which is focused on outputs and responsibilities, which this law is supposed to instil within the financial sector in the Government. The amendment also introduces a broader strategy on enhancing a prudent, efficient and effective use of public resources in the public sector. That is the summary of the Bill. Let me now go to the highlights of the various clauses for the benefit of the Members in the House. There is an amendment to Clause 3 of the Bill which proposes to amend Section 5(1) of the PFM Act in order to include Parliament in the approval process of the declaration of county government entities. So, in any declaration that will be done in as far as county entities are concerned, Parliament approval must be sought. Further, that clause proposes to amend Section 5(4) of the PFM Act to include county executive committees in the process of making a determination if and when a county government entity ceases to be a county government entity in accordance with the Act. These amendments are made to secure public assets and ensure that county governments do not declare national Government entities as county government entities without getting the approval of Parliament. This is very clear. The county governments, through the Transition Authority, inherited assets and liabilities from the defunct municipalities, city and county councils. There was an abuse in that process. So, we are trying to bring an amendment to give Parliament the power to participate when making a determination on who owns the entities - is it the national Government or the county government? When it is the national Government, it is very clear the custodian of national Government entities is the Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury. Clause 5 of the Bill proposes to amend Section 10 of the Act in order to enhance the functions of the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) and its reporting duties. Under the proposed amendments in that section, the PBO is required to report to the relevant Speaker and committees of Parliament on any Bill that has financial implications. In addition to the existing functions 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."
}