Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 968065,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/968065/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 94,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Eng.) Mahamud",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 373,
        "legal_name": "Mohammed Maalim Mahamud",
        "slug": "mohammed-mahamud"
    },
    "content": "Our discussion with the county governments yesterday was on what the outstanding bill is currently; what they have paid so far; and how they want to pay the others. In fact, from the discussions we had yesterday, we found that significant progress is being made. From the submissions of the national Treasury, the CoB and the affected counties, the Committee made several observations as indicated below. (1) That pursuant to Article 225(1) of the Constitution and Section 96(1) of the Public Finance Management (PFM) Act 2012, the CS was within its powers stop the transfer of funds to county governments where he finds a county government entity to be in serious or persistent material breach of its obligations or financial commitments; (2) That the power to stop the transfer of funds to a county government was tempered by several provisions of the Constitution; (3) Some Counties experienced a huge discrepancy between the pending bills that were received at the handing over between the two governments, the report of the County Pending Bills Verification Committee, and the audit verification by the Office of the Auditor-General. Mr. Speaker, Sir, from these observations, in fact in this report, we have detailed each of the counties, which are all the 15 counties minus Baringo, on what they have done so far. We have seen that substantial progress has been made in terms of paying that, and plans have been put in place for the payment of the remaining bills. The other issue that they had to require to budget for it and, in fact, they have to do a lot of supplementary budget to take that. Mr. Speaker, Sir, from these observations, the Committee recommends to the Senate as follows:- (a) That the county governments, having made substantial progress towards settling of the pending bills, the Committee recommends that the House does not approve the decision of the CS, national Treasury, to stop the transfer of funds to the listed 15 counties. (b) The CoB and the national Treasury should submit to the Senate a report detailing the status of payment of pending bills and reconciled amounts of pending bills of all the counties by 5th March, 2020; which is three months from now. We need a reconciled amount because what is happening is that there is a lot of discrepancy between the figures quoted by the CoB, the Auditor-General and also the counties. Of course, payment is being done. (c) The national Treasury to review the Integrated Financial Management Information (IFMIS) system to provide for ageing of creditors. (d) The Public Finance Management Act 2012, be amended to provide for payment on a First-In-First-Out (FIFO) basis. This will ensure compliance with various accounting standards which treat debt repayment as a first charge on revenue. (e) The national Treasury and county governments to enhance technical capacity in budgeting and accounting in the county treasury to ensure adherence with the principles of public finance and standard charts of accounts. 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."
}