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{
    "id": 967927,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/967927/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 547,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Ugunja, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Opiyo Wandayi",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2960,
        "legal_name": "James Opiyo Wandayi",
        "slug": "james-opiyo-wandayi"
    },
    "content": "Committee has been able to ensure that, through its diligent work, monies being taken to the counties shall no longer be based on historical figures but shall be based on extremely realistic statistics. This will definitely mean that the counties shall get enhanced revenue allocation, a factor that can only contribute to the strengthening of devolution, as it were. On this account, I must say thank you to my Committee Members for the diligence they have exhibited throughout their work in the Committee. There will be no more excuse of people out there, sometimes out of ignorance, lamenting that Parliament is behind schedule in terms of examining the reports of the Auditor-General. That is now a thing of the past. At least, the PAC of the 12th Parliament has proved naysayers wrong; that this Parliament can actually deliver where it matters; and that going forward, the officers in charge of the county governments, particularly the governors and their county executives, once they get these monies as a result of the work this Parliament has been able to do, through the PAC, they shall put those monies to proper use; that they shall have no more excuse to say that development work is not going on in the counties as a result of inadequate allocation of funds; that this Parliament shall have ensured that they get the most appropriate amounts of money in terms of revenue share. As I say this, let me also highlight a few issues that my committee has pointed out very clearly in this report. Unfortunately, these are recurring issues, in the sense that year in year out, they emerge as we examine these reports and we raise them in our reports and yet they continue to recur. One of the issues that we will have to confront as a country is to be able to realign our Budget to match our capacity at revenue collection. You will agree with me that there is a serious mismatch between our supplementary estimates and what we can realistically collect as revenue as a country. So, what we end up with is essentially a wish list in the name of a budget. We have become too optimistic that somehow through some miracle money shall be available and yet we know from history that we have not been able to do much in terms of revenue collection due to multiple factors. The moment we shall align our budget to reflect the realistic revenues collected, then we shall be able to implement this Budget properly. The moment we continue to be optimistic and yet fail to collect the targeted revenues, we go back to the Budget. First of all, we do what has now become a ritual, the supplementary budgets. However, beyond that, we continue to incur what has become a common parlance, the so-called pending bills. I am talking of pending bills in the sense that the Ex-Chequer cannot be released because there is no money at the national Treasury. The reason there is no money is that Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has been unable to collect money because the economy is shrinking. We must be realistic going forward as a country. If we want to continue being overly optimistic or realistic then we need to cut our cloth according to our size."
}