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{
    "id": 926478,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/926478/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 175,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Suba South, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. John Mbadi",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 110,
        "legal_name": "John Mbadi Ng'ong'o",
        "slug": "john-mbadi"
    },
    "content": "comparing the performance of counties with the NG-CDF. So, the sure way of killing counties is by focusing on the budget allocation and not at how that money is utilised. I know my time is running out. I want to get to my next point. There is talk that there is a lot of money that remains at the national Government level. That the National Assembly is only concerned about the plight of the national Government and it is not thinking about the counties. That we have a 3 trillion Budget and out of it, only Kshs300 billion is going to the counties. That argument is informed by ignorance, lack of understanding of the budget process and lack of knowledge about finances in this country. We are just projecting what we will collect as a country. That is a projection that will not be realised because history has it that we have never realised projected revenue. We are projecting to collect Ksh1.877 trillion from the Treasury. That is the projection that the Commission on Revenue Allocation and everyone else has been basing their arguments on. That is the amount we should be talking about. There are certain expenditures that are inflexible; they are expenditures that must always be met. If you remove from Kshs1.877 trillion the public debt which we will pay at Kshs586 billion; then you remove constitutional commissions where the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) takes the largest chunk of Kshs252 billion and the total of constitutional commissions of Ksh261 billion; pensions and salaries to constitutional commission office holders of Kshs109; and Parliament and other independent institutions like the Office of the Controller of Budget, the Auditor-General and the Judiciary Kshs73 billion, if you add that to the emergencies and equalisation fund, it amounts to Kshs1.41 trillion. You will remain with Kshs836 billion. Out of that amount, take a way Kshs330 billion that is to be given to counties, you will have only Kshs506 billion. The entire recurrent budget from the presidency of Kshs8.9 billion, the Interior Ministry has Kshs127 billion, that includes the police officers and the police vehicles; correctional services like the prisons that has Kshs26 billion; Defence with Kshs104.5 billion plus others like Education, National Treasury, planning, health, roads and transport which will consume Kshs718.8 billion, it means there is deficit on the recurrent expenditure of Kshs212 billion. What is the harsh reality? The harsh reality, which is a lie that we have been living as a country for long, is that we are borrowing money to cover recurrent expenditure in this country. Therefore, whoever has been peddling propaganda and rumors that there is enough money in this country to cover all the recurrent expenditure, to pay our debts and to allocate to counties is lying. We do not have money in this country to cover all the recurrent expenditure, to pay our debts and to cover money for all the commissions unless, as a country, we come out boldly to drastically reduce the recurrent expenditure, maybe by a half and reduce the debt repayment although I do not know how we will do it because debt repayment is an obligation that is permanent and you cannot change it. I think we need to be a little bit sober. I will finish in the next two minutes. This is where I wonder why the Senate thinks that the National Assembly is not responsible. Is the Senate coming to this matter with clean hands? We had agreed on some figures in out last Mediation Committee. The National Assembly moved to Kshs316 billion and we have not changed that. We have generated another Bill with Kshs316.5 billion. The Senate had agreed to come down to Kshs327 billion. How come it has generated another Bill with Kshs335 billion? That tells us that the Senate is a House that is not committed to mediation but grandstanding. That is unfortunate. I expect that the people of Kenya will listen to us on this. We should come to an agreement objectively. If this country is going to borrow money whether internally or externally…"
}