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{
    "id": 924631,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/924631/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 508,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Olekina",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 407,
        "legal_name": "Ledama Olekina",
        "slug": "ledama-olekina"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I rise to Second that this House adopts the Motion. This is why we are here to defend the interests of our counties, and to ensure that they have enough resources to deliver services to the people of Kenya. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Fiduciary Risk Report, which we are seeking to have adopted by this House, took us on long a journey to examine how counties have been spending their money, and how the Auditor-General reported after looking at the expenditure. The Auditor-General identified serious risks. Notably, that most counties flouted various pieces of legislation, which include those that deal with finance management. One of the legislations which was flouted by almost all counties was the Public Audit Act during the audit process. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Auditor General noted clearly that out of all the 47 counties, 39 counties received a disclaimer of opinion because of the limitation of scope. For Financial Year 2013/14, most of these counties – 39 counties – did not co-operate with the auditors during the audit process. They did not provide the auditors with the relevant information required to be able to examine the risks. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the county executive officers are the ones tasked with the responsibility to ensure fiduciary responsibility. They are meant to ensure that the money that is put under their care is utilised properly. The Auditor-General noted that a lot of these Governors, their staff and entire cabinets did not understand the process on how to manage these funds effectively. Most of these counties had various accounts into which they deposited their own-source revenue. This completely violated the Public Finance Management (PFM) Act, which is very clear in terms of where all own-source revenue should be deposited. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is very sad to note that most of the county governments, particularly in the first year of Financial Year 2013/2014, literally just operated these counties as if they were running their own kiosks. You will find county governments depositing money and withdrawing it. At the end of the day, the money just disappeared, and they do not report on how they expended it. We have serious risks. You will find that a lot of the pending Bills which have been accumulating for all these years were as a result of counties coming up with huge budgets which they are unable to fund. When you look at the financial statements of most of these counties during the three financial years that we looked at, most of them were setting unrealistic budgets. You will see a county government that is only collecting Ksh80 million and receiving about Ksh5 billion coming up with a budget of about Ksh10 billion. A very good example is the county that we visited, Samburu, where the Governor clearly stated that 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."
}