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{
    "id": 921952,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/921952/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 408,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Prof.) Ongeri",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 124,
        "legal_name": "Samson Kegeo Ongeri",
        "slug": "samson-ongeri"
    },
    "content": "few individuals who want to defraud the system. This Bill is also seeking to minimize any losses or violations of the existing Public Finance Management (PFM) Act. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, the third element that I like about this Bill is that it creates the identity of the national Government vis-a-vis the National Treasury. This identity is very important because, at the moment, I see a resigned attitude by county governments when they appear before the CPAIC. They usually say: “We are waiting for the National Treasury to give us directions,” yet they have all the means at their command. They can regulate their own resources and get a fairly big chunk of money from their own-source revenue. We, therefore, want to bequeath them, through these amendments, an element of independence and distinctiveness; that, yes, the county treasury exists to follow the PFM Act regulations. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, the only other way I see us benefiting from this Amendment is to cure the mischief which was recently created by the Court of Appeal, when they said that the Senate has no business looking into own-source revenue. These are resources that are being acquired from the public, and anything that has been acquired from the public is subject to public scrutiny. The only way you can subject those funds to public scrutiny is by oversighting whether it has been collected, and ensuring that it has gone to proper use. Therefore, by bringing in these amendments, it gives us the leverage of saying; “sorry, these are public funds that have been collected through revenue streams, as clearly defined by law. Therefore, this money belongs to the Wanjiku and Muraya of today, and needs to be accounted for.” There is no way anybody can run away from that oversight responsibility. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, let me come to Section 160B. What does it portend? It is merely a reporting of county revenue collection and its performance. I would suggest to the Mover of the amendment that instead of it being biannual, why not put it to be in sync with the quarterly reporting system that is in force? This is because Bi-annually, it may create some difficulties being able to synchronise the quarterly reporting that is there in the PFM Act, the quarterly reporting by the Auditor General, the quarterly reporting by those who are accountable for resources, the National Treasury and also the--- I would suggest amendments to the effect that we do it on a quarterly basis."
}