Sources at the meeting said that the Senate would push ahead with summons to individual Governors to answer audit queries raised by the Auditor General/FILE
Sources at the meeting said that the Senate would push ahead with summons to individual Governors to answer audit queries raised by the Auditor General.
“We agreed that our work will continue and we expect individual Governors to appear before us to answer queries over financial management,” a source at the meeting told Capital FM News.
The source revealed that the Senate Committee on Finance will first summon the Auditor General to shed more light on the financial queries in several counties before issuing fresh summons to the Governors.
The meeting that was held jointly also agreed that the Judiciary should respect the separation of powers and not appear to hinder the work of Parliament.
It’s understood that the MPs Kamukunji also resolved that Parliament would not pursue a threat to slash funds sent to counties and instead put the spotlight on individual counties that are mismanaging funds.
After the meeting, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance Billow Kerrow stated that they will be seeking to pin-point irregularities within county finances in a bid to increase accountability.
The Mandera Senator indicated that they will extend fresh invitations to County Chief Executives earlier summoned so that they can explain any shortcomings presented in the Auditor General’s report.
“Our committee is going ahead with the invitations to the Governors. That we have agreed. To that extent, as a Committee of Finance we will be inviting the Auditor General to present the audits of various counties that have already been completed. After the auditor does his presentation, the procedure is that we will be inviting the Governors to come and respond to the queries,” he said.
Kerrow emphasised that both MPs and Senators are committed to ensuring that devolution works and emphasised the need for all involved to play their part.
“I think generally the sense we are getting for Governors is that they will be willing to attend to invitations. I think it is becoming apparent that the constitutional requirement for oversighting by Members of Parliament is not in doubt anywhere in the world. If you go to South Africa and Nigeria which are Federal States, both Houses of Parliament do oversight up to the local government level,” he stated.
He expressed the commitment of both Houses to ensure the success of devolution.
“We have been talking to Governors and they do appreciate that all this negative publicity that the Governors do not want accountability is not good. One thing we have agreed as both Houses of Parliament is that we are all committed to ensuring that devolution continues. We will not undermine it,” he stated.
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