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{
    "id": 868779,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/868779/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 210,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Garissa Township, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Aden Duale",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 15,
        "legal_name": "Aden Bare Duale",
        "slug": "aden-duale"
    },
    "content": "all resources sent to the Judiciary, Parliament, constitutional office holders and independent offices. Clause 18 of the Bill proposes to amend Section 78 of the principal Act to recognise and include other collectors of revenue other than the KRA under the public finance management framework in order to facilitate the smooth operation of Government in the collection of revenue. If there are other agencies that will play a role in the collection of revenue, this amendment gives them an opportunity to work alongside the KRA. Clause 19 of the Bill proposes to amend Section 82(4) of the Act to restrict the power to grant waiver or variations to only the Cabinet Secretary in line with provisions of Section 77 of the Act so that nobody else in our country can grant waivers apart from the Cabinet Secretary of the National Treasury. You will agree with me that granting such powers to other persons or entities may result in arbitrary waivers and variations which will be detrimental to the people of Kenya. Restricting the power to the Cabinet Secretary allows the National Assembly adequate oversight capacity as the Constitution makes the Cabinet Secretary directly accountable to the House for his or her actions. So, this amendment makes it mandatory that nobody else, including the President, the Deputy President, other Cabinet Secretaries or any other institution, can grant waivers, for neatness and accountability purposes. Clause 31 of the Bill proposes to amend Section 109 of the Act in order to facilitate easy operationalisation of the single treasury account by having all counties’ exchequer accounts maintained at the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK). Currently, the Act allows the County Executive Committee Members (CECM) to approve opening of exchequer accounts in commercial banks. I remember this was very important. Today, as per the Act, county exchequer accounts are maintained in various commercial banks. Some of them might have issues in terms of liquidity. They might collapse. When the Chase Bank, the Imperial Bank and many other banks went under, the National Government Constituencies Development Fund (NG-CDF) money was lost. County governments’ money and national Government parastatals’ money was lost. This amendment is saying that all Government money, the single treasury account and the county exchequer accounts can only be maintained in an account at the CBK. It should no longer be in a commercial bank. This poses a significant risk to the cash flow requirements of a county in the event those commercial banks either collapse or are placed under statutory management as we have seen in the recent case of the Chase Bank, the Imperial Bank and the Dubai Bank. Requiring that these accounts be maintained at the CBK provides greater stability in terms of the fiscal requirements of the counties. Clause 49 of the Bill proposes to amend Section 127 of the principal Act. This amendment will require every county government to prepare its annual cash flow projections to the Controller of Budget by 30th of April instead of 15th of June as currently provided for in this Act. This is in line with the prescribed budget cycle and will allow the relevant authority access to information in a timely way and inform their reporting to Parliament. If we do not change the date from June when they are supposed to do their cash flow projections reporting, time will lapse and Parliament will be briefed after the end of the financial year. In this amendment, we are saying that county governments must submit their annual cash flow projections to the Controller of Budget latest by 30th April every year and not 15th June every year. Clause 42 of the Bill proposes to amend Section 131 of the Act in order to limit any change under the vote contained in the estimates provided to county assemblies, which is 10 percent of the ceiling of the vote. That is dealing with what we give to county assemblies. We 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."
}