HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"id": 920384,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/920384/?format=api",
"text_counter": 328,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Halake",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 13184,
"legal_name": "Abshiro Soka Halake",
"slug": "abshiro-soka-halake"
},
"content": "Thank you, Madam Temporary Speaker. I rise to support the Amendment Bill by Sen. (Dr.) Zani. I congratulate her because this is a very timely amendment to the Public Finance Management Act (PFM). It is simply because devolution is not just about the political and administrative aspect, but also the decentralisation of the fiscal or financial as well. Over time, we have seen a decline in own-revenue collection by counties, and we do not know the exact cause; we could easily speak of many things. I know that the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) singled out the revenue system as a conduit for corruption. Once again, we are not saying that, that is the only reason that these revenues are declining. However, I was quickly checking how own-source revenue with counties was doing since 2013/2014. For instance, in that financial year, it was 11.7 per cent of the total county revenue. In FY2014/2015, it went to 11.1 per cent, and then reduced to 10.2 per cent in 2015. It was 8.8 per cent in FY2016/2017 and 8.4 per cent in 2017/2018. I do not know the cause for this, but I think the amendments that Sen. (Dr.) Zani is proposing will go a long way in ensuring that counties are not just becoming net receivers of the shared revenue but also, as a government, they are collecting and administering taxes for service provision of the respective counties. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, what I like about this proposed amendment is the collaboration between the national Treasury, county treasuries as well as the CRA to make sure that county revenue collection--- Actually, generation of revenue is also something that we should look at. Therefore, Sen. (Dr.) Zani, as you go back to the amendments, perhaps you should look at something on generation of revenue. Sometimes we have seen counties falling back into a very comfortable situation, where they just wait for the national Treasury to send the money. When they get the money, then there is no incentive, opportunity or reason to collect own-source revenue. Another issue is the staffing of revenue collection systems. We have seen situations where the revenue collection points are manned by casual workers. I do not know if this is by design or just lack of staffing. I do not understand how such an important activity of the county, to raise its own revenue, is not even manned by county staff. In many counties, you will find casual workers collecting money from the different places in the county. Therefore, the issue of making sure that the right personnel are assigned that duty is also important. This is because in the past, we have seen the irregular use of IFMIS, where unauthorised people get credentials. Once again, we are seeing a lot of this in the own-source revenue collection systems, where the right people are not collecting these taxes. As my colleagues have said, these taxes then end up in the wrong hands. But, again, we are seeing a link to corrupt practices when the right people are not taking care of the taxes. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}