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{
    "id": 921931,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/921931/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 387,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Eng.) Mahamud",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 373,
        "legal_name": "Mohammed Maalim Mahamud",
        "slug": "mohammed-mahamud"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, counties may have different streams of own-source revenue. However, it is important that legislation is brought forward, so that these matters are dealt with. For the last few years, attempts have been made at all levels. As you are aware, we tabled a report in this House, an effort which was led by the National Treasury, with efforts being made by the Council of Governors (CoG) and various other stakeholders. This effort was geared towards coming up with a policy and eventually a legislation which would deal with the PFM Act, so that we can enhance own-source revenue collection in counties. Our Committee on Finance and Budget is looking at that report. That notwithstanding, the fact that this has come before us and our Committee is looking at it is very important, because we must start from somewhere. Sen. (Dr.) Zani has proposed that we must bring legislation, so that we compel county treasuries to develop, design and implement a revenue collecting system, of course, in consultation with other stakeholders. We have discussed that with her at the legislative proposal stage and also the public hearing stage, where we have gone through public hearing with other stakeholders. I hope that nobody is opposing this particular piece of legislation. The only issue that some people have raised is that maybe instead of every county developing its own source of legislation, they could have a working system, which they can customize to their needs. This because in Article 90 of the Constitution, counties are obliged to only use financial management systems that comply with the requirements to the national legislation. The National Treasury, under Section 12 (2) (e) of the Public Financial Management Act, is mandated to design and prescribe a financial management system for both levels of Government. This is to ensure that the systems in place are integrated. As Sen. M. Kajwang’ said, both the national Government and counties have to continue using IFMIS. The issue of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Database (IPPD) was brought much earlier than all those systems, because they deal with payrolls and both levels of Government. The system that is developed should be able to integrate and be easily useable with the other systems, instead of discarding what was there before. From this point of view, it is important that a system that is designed has features that can be adapted by various counties for their own needs. Our Committee has looked at it and discussed the same with Sen. (Dr.) Zani. We think that there is need to mandate the National Treasury, Council of Governors (CoG), the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) and the County Revenue Authority (CRA) to develop a system that can be used by the counties in terms of collecting own source revenue. Thereafter, each county is obligated to customize that system for their own use. This is a very important piece of legislation. The Bill then proposes a report requirement every two years. However, we think that, that period is very long. We want it reduced to one year and have made that amendment. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, the other issue is that failure to implement that system will require the penalty of stoppage of funds to the counties under Article 225 of 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."
}