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{
    "id": 868830,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/868830/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 261,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Igembe Central, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Kubai Iringo",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1574,
        "legal_name": "Cyprian Kubai Iringo",
        "slug": "cyprian-kubai-iringo"
    },
    "content": "has been happening. If all these monies which have been collected are put into the Exchequer, that is the same money which will be factored in the budget of that particular county government. It will be very easy to monitor where there are spillages. If they do not spend that money, it goes back to the Exchequer. That clause is very good. You have to prudently do your planning and budget and start using that money early enough so that when it is time for the audit, you would have no money to return. If there is any, it will go back to the Exchequer and you will be answerable to the public or the electorate on why you did not use the money yet it was there. That will help in managing funds prudently. The CECs for finance in the county governments have also been given powers. They need those powers because there are times when some incidents arise and you have to make a decision. If this decision has to come from the National Treasury, it might be too late or it might have some other detrimental effects. Once they have been given those powers, they can waive or vary taxes according to the situation they are in. I agree that the variations are welcome because they will arise any time. Varying of tariffs is also important. You will hear of people striking because they do not have any business since they cannot pay the high fees and that business is slow. This has been considered from region to region and it is welcome. Another amendment which I also agree with is having a centralised exchequer for our counties to manage the funds or monies received as grants or through the national Government. Apart from the fact that that maybe the bank can close, go under or other things can happen, the management of the same becomes very tedious to the National Treasury, the Exchequer and even the auditors. A very good example is in my constituency. I have put the funds of all my projects in designated banks so that my office and the Office of the National Government Constituencies Development Fund (NG-CDF) can also track all the projects wherever they are because they are in banks which are known and can be accessed. Equally, once the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) is tasked with that one, it will be well and good. My worry is that we have very few branches of CBK and we have 47 counties in this country. We need to have a framework whereby we will not have bottlenecks when it comes to revenues and other monies collected within the localities of the counties. An amendment will be sought so that we can have designated banks which are accredited and are known to be stable. They can be given that money for collection purposes so that we do not destabilise the counties looking for where we can take those monies. There is the issue of the county governments and even our ministries getting money. Once they get monies for certain activities, their procurement process becomes so cumbersome until you find that some projects will take six months, 10 months or a year before they take off. Some monies spill to the following year and are lost to the National Treasury and that work is not done. We are calling for efficiency in our ministries. Our Cabinet Secretaries should be efficient enough so that once money for purposes of development or any other use has been put across to them, procurement is done faster so that we do not have projects spilling to other years. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, because of time, let me say these are good amendments. As we move on, we shall polish them further and come up with a document which will put our financial management in this country…"
}