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{
    "id": 952854,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/952854/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 287,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Prof.) Ongeri",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 124,
        "legal_name": "Samson Kegeo Ongeri",
        "slug": "samson-ongeri"
    },
    "content": "not projects have been done. They can bring it to our attention, so that we make appropriate recommendations. I have noticed that my county will get more than Kshs7.78 billion of equitable revenue, and that is a good share of money. We have a problem on conditional grants. Some of these funds cannot be audited because we do not know how they are disbursed by the National Treasury. We only accept a report placed in our hands. This Senate must come up with a framework on how to do monitoring and evaluation of conditional grants. They are increasing in figures and we must keep our eyeballs on them. When donor partners give conditional grants, county governments claim that they are only accountable to sharable revenue. The other problem that we had is when the High Court pronounced that the county assemblies cannot audit own source revenues. This is an issue that we ought to pick up as the Senate. There is no way you can separate own source revenues because they forms part and parcel of the integral funds within the counties. They must, therefore, appear in the county revenue account. It is a constitutional mandate that any receivable funds must appear in the county revenue account. If they do not, there is likelihood that they are being misused and spent outside the normal regulatory mechanisms that have been provided by the Constitution, the Public Finance Management (PFM) Act and the Public Audit Act. For the Auditor- General to have access to those funds, they must be receivable in the accounts. The other problem we have encountered is the Integrated Financial Management and Information System (IFMIS) story. You will hear more stories when we table our report. The National Treasury should configure the IFMIS because they have rolled out its four platforms. However, some counties disaggregate those platforms. That is why some counties budget for State House, when that does not concern them. It is because they use the template used by the National Assembly and National Treasury. Finally, it is our desire, that when we finally get there, county governments should get between 35 and 40 per cent of the national revenue. For them to qualify, it must not be based on the last audited accounts because that is where the game is, but on annual estimates of the budget by the National Treasury. We should have a law on that. One of the recommendations we should have when looking at the PFM Act--- I have seen many amendments being presented on this Floor. If we have it clear that the amount disbursed to the counties should be based on budget of the National Treasury, which is now Kshs3.2 trillion, then the business of struggling year in, year out with the National Assembly on how much money should be disbursed to county governments from equitable share will be a story of the past. These counties will get upwards, from Kshs450 billion to Kshs600 billion, and will have enough money to do development."
}