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{
"id": 1503162,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1503162/?format=api",
"text_counter": 402,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Kikuyu, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Kimani Ichung’wah",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Hon. Temporary Speaker, I beg to move that the Public Finance Management (Amendment) (No. 4) Bill (National Assembly Bill no. 45 of 2024) be now read a Second Time. This is a very short Bill amending the Public Finance Management Act around the issues of our debt management. We amended the Public Finance Management Act about two years ago, setting the thresholds for our public debt. Hon. Temporary Speaker, this Bill seeks to strengthen our public finance management framework by addressing a number of critical issues: compliance, accounting and governance. On accounting and governance, Clause 3 of the Bill provides for the amendment of Section 194 of the principal Act to provide a framework for the implementation of accrual accounting in Government and risk management by the Public Sector Accounting Standards Board (PSASB). This is meant to improve the accounting standards for better transparency in Government. We have been under the cash-based accounting system but are now moving to an accrual-based system. To do that, we need to create the legal framework which Clause 3 of the Bill seeks to do."
},
{
"id": 1503163,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1503163/?format=api",
"text_counter": 403,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Kikuyu, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Kimani Ichung’wah",
"speaker": null,
"content": "The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
},
{
"id": 1503164,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1503164/?format=api",
"text_counter": 404,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Kikuyu, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Kimani Ichung’wah",
"speaker": null,
"content": "Clause 2 of the Bill outlines the effective dates for complying with the prescribed borrowing threshold. As I said earlier, the Bill seeks to strengthen compliance, accounting and governance in Government. I have already spoken about accounting. On compliance, Clause 2 of the Bill gives us the debt threshold I had alluded to earlier. We amended the Public Finance Management Act, which requires we amend it again in Section 50. Clause 2(a) of the Bill seeks to delete subsection 2(C) of the principal Act that we amended some time back. For the benefit of Members, Clause 2 of the Bill provides that the borrowing of the national Government referred to in subsection (2) shall not exceed 55 per cent of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in net present terms. Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection 2(a), the national Government may, in exceptional circumstances, exceed this threshold set under this subsection by not more than 5 per cent and shall come into force on the date that is five years from the date of the commencement of this Act. We set our public debt threshold at 55 per cent, plus five or minus five, of our GDP in net present terms. It will be plus five because in minus five, you will still be within the 55 per cent threshold. Therefore, it says that under exceptional circumstances, then your debt to GDP ratios can rise from 55 to about 60 per cent. But at the time we enacted this debt anchor threshold, we had already passed it. Therefore, we needed a transition period under which the national Government or National Treasury is obligated to ensure that we sustain our debt levels within that debt anchor ratio of 55 to a maximum of 60 per cent of our GDP under very exceptional circumstances. That is what we seek to do by complying with this particular provision, to ensure that we set a period that will not exceed five years. From the time this Act came into being about two years ago, within a period of five years, which is by the end of 2027, the National Treasury must ensure that our national debt levels do not go beyond 55 per cent of GDP. Therefore, it is important that we amend this provision. If we leave it like that, it is possible that in the year 2037 or 2042, when Hon. Robert Mbui will run for presidency, he will tell us..."
},
{
"id": 1503165,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1503165/?format=api",
"text_counter": 405,
"type": "scene",
"speaker_name": "",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "(Hon. Robert Mbui spoke off the record)"
},
{
"id": 1503166,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1503166/?format=api",
"text_counter": 406,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Kikuyu, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Kimani Ichung’wah",
"speaker": null,
"content": "He will run for the presidency in 2032. Sorry, I thought you wanted to do it in 2042. He told me he would do it in 2032, which is very encouraging. It means that his Party Leader will not be a President by then to run for the position. That is on a light note."
},
{
"id": 1503167,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1503167/?format=api",
"text_counter": 407,
"type": "scene",
"speaker_name": "",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "(Laughter)"
},
{
"id": 1503168,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1503168/?format=api",
"text_counter": 408,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Kikuyu, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Kimani Ichung’wah",
"speaker": null,
"content": "If we do not put that debt ceiling in terms of timelines, then it is possible that bureaucrats in Government may push it, and it remains above 55 per cent of the GDP all the way to 2050. As a result, the generations after us will say they are still within the debt ceiling because the timeline was not set. That is why we need to enforce compliance and force the National Treasury to make sure that within this period of five years, they move that compliance level to what is set out in the Bill. Hon. Temporary Speaker, as I said, this is a very short Bill with only three clauses. Therefore, I have nothing more important to add. I beg to move and request the Chairman of the Departmental Committee on Finance and National Planning, Hon. Kimani Kuria, the one and only Member for Molo, to second."
},
{
"id": 1503169,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1503169/?format=api",
"text_counter": 409,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. Peter Kaluma",
"speaker_title": "The Temporary Speaker",
"speaker": {
"id": 1565,
"legal_name": "George Peter Opondo Kaluma",
"slug": "george-peter-opondo-kaluma"
},
"content": " The Member for Molo."
},
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"id": 1503170,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1503170/?format=api",
"text_counter": 410,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Molo, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Kuria Kimani",
"speaker": null,
"content": " I thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker. I rise to second this Bill. This is one of the Bills that was referred to the Departmental Committee on Finance and National Planning."
},
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"id": 1503171,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1503171/?format=api",
"text_counter": 411,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Molo, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Kuria Kimani",
"speaker": null,
"content": "The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}
]
}