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{
    "id": 924586,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/924586/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 463,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. M. Kajwang’",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13162,
        "legal_name": "Moses Otieno Kajwang'",
        "slug": "moses-otieno-kajwang"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I have indicated that this Report is available on the online platform. Since Members are competent to read the Report, I will only cover about five issues. The other Members of the Committee will support me on the other issues. In the past five years, the Office of the Auditor-General has submitted to Parliament about 235 reports for county executives,141 reports for county assemblies and more than 1,000 county funds and corporation reports. In total, the Auditor-General has submitted more than 1,300 reports to this House. The Controller of Budget has also submitted 20 quarterly reports and five annual reports. I would like to take this opportunity to wish the Auditor-General and Controller of Budget - who are in their sunset periods - well as they close their business. I also wish to urge this House to seize the moment and call for fast-tracking of the process of replacing the Auditor-General and Controller of Budget, whose terms come to a close later in the month of August. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, of the 1300 reports that have come to this House, very few have received adoption or full acceptance by the House. This is because various committees have been looking at them. Committees look at these reports individually and as a result, they fail to see the forest for the trees. The Fiduciary Risk Report that we have laid on the Table of the House puts into context all the risks that have been identified in counties, relating to management of public funds. The Fiduciary Risk Report will not just pick Nairobi City County or Tharaka- Nithi County. It will look at all the issues that have been raised by the Auditor-General. We realized that some of the issues are cross-cutting. In our Report, fiduciary risk has been defined as the probability that public funds are misapplied or the extent to which public funds have been misapplied. We, as a Committee, have taken the position that a global view of county risks will help the Senate to formulate national legislation and come up with policies and regulations that can cut across all counties. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Parliamentary Budget Office and our Committee clerks analyzed the Auditor-General reports for the financial years 2013 to 2016 to establish cross-cutting issues. The risks that were identified were assessed. Their impacts were analyzed and recommendations have been made for their management. If you look at our Report, from page 55, there is a table that identifies the risk and comes up with a recommendation. The Committee retreated to write and adopt the Report, which I will now take you through. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I also wish to thank the officers in the Parliamentary Budget office. In the United States of America, every legislative assembly has an office of legislative audit. This is a team of technicians that support the Public Accounts Committee. In the United Kingdom, from whom we borrow quite a number of our practice, there is the Financial Scrutiny Unit. That is also a team of analysts and professionals who do the hard work; the number crunching on behalf of the Public Accounts Committee. It then gives them a position they can now share and canvass with the witnesses that appear before them. 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."
}