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{
"id": 960940,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/960940/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. (Eng.) Mahamud",
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"speaker": {
"id": 373,
"legal_name": "Mohammed Maalim Mahamud",
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"content": "counties as far as what their priorities are. In the first two years of existence of the counties, everybody went on a spending spree of building infrastructure projects. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, it was very clear from the advice they got from the CRA that in the first five years, they should not undertake large infrastructural projects. The SRC came up with a plan for them to rent offices at that time. Fair enough; I think offices, county headquarters and assemblies were necessary, but the differential in counties was surprising. In fact, our attention was drawn to a lot of newspaper reports. There was a lot of hue and cry in the counties when we saw the Budget for the Financial Year 2017/2018. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, there were a lot of variances. Some provided Kshs200 to 300 million. We engaged the Ministry of Transport, infrastructure, Public Works and Urban Development because they are supposed to be the advisors on public infrastructure. Most counties do not want to use them for obvious reasons. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, a county like Isiolo awarded a tender for Kshs870 million. They were among the five counties that were supposed to get affirmative action according to what the Senate gave them in the last Senate. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, out of the five counties, which are, Tana River, Isiolo, Tharaka-Nithi, Nyandarua and Lamu, it is only Tharaka-Nithi and Nyandarua that have started constructing their own county offices. Tana River has not done anything and Isiolo was doing it last year. We sat down with the Ministry of Transport, Infrastructure, Public Works and Urban Development and went through the possibilities of what the costs of those projects are. This is how the ceilings came. We got prototype designs, which were looked at, and said that the acreage of even the office must be controlled. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the typical residence of the former Provincial Commissioners (PCs) in the eight headquarters and premises was our guide. There were very good buildings on two-acre parcels of land. People want to build mansions that are far beyond the capacity of counties. We also resolved that Kshs500 million was enough to construct county headquarters offices. We realized that there were contracts in force, but there is provision in contract law to downsize projects with agreements to the contractors. In fact, up to 25 per cent can go down. We said that whereas they have already started contracting, let us allow the negotiation between the contractor and the county government for them to downsize the contracts by 25 per cent. Nobody is interested. On the contrary, contracts are terminated and new ones awarded three times the price of the original contracts. There must be some way of reining in this rogue behavior. I am sorry to use that word. It is serious--- Whereas there is no law that allows us to control how much the ceiling should be, we thought we are giving advisory opinion to our counties so that they go by the figures. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we expect the Auditor-General and people who are dealing with finances to come up with those figures and use that as a guide. The Senator is requesting us, through this Statement, to reconsider those ceilings. We will convene our meeting again, but have exhausted all the possibilities and nobody seems to be 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."
}