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{
    "id": 101078,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/101078/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 312,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Mungatana",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 185,
        "legal_name": "Danson Buya Mungatana",
        "slug": "danson-mungatana"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want hon. Ojode to take this matter very seriously, because he is not from Treasury. What we are saying is that the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance is requesting Kshs20 billion for six months for his Ministry. What we are saying is that the correct thing, so that there can be discipline even in the Ministry of State for Provincial Administration and Internal Security, is to be given money for two months. Within those two months, the Minister will have appeared before the relevant Parliamentary Departmental Committee and, in accordance with the Fiscal Management Act, defended the Vote. If we think that the Minister has requested for money that they do not need, and that it should go into hiring of teachers, we would say “this line should not be there”. These are the things that the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Minister should then table before this House. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, hon. Ogindo is requesting this House to fundamentally change the way we have been doing business in this House. I am requesting that we should not just vote for the sake of voting because the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance has requested for 50 per cent of the Budget. Let us not allow that to happen. This financial year will come to an end on 30th June, 2010. That means we are still around. If there is any emergency, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance can quickly come to us. So, there is no justification whatsoever for him to request us to give the Ministries 50 per cent of their budgets. What shall we be asking the Ministers in the Departmental Committees if they already have 50 per cent of their budgets? There is reason for what we are saying. I am pleading with the House that we are here to support the Government, as Parliament, but our role is oversight. We must make sure that there is discipline in the Ministries as they do their work. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, that is why we are saying there is no problem. Let the Minister get the 25 per cent of the Budget. In fact, if you ask me, 50 per cent was traditionally for the six months. We should just be approving a third of the Budget because, in my opinion, 25 per cent goes beyond the two months that is supposed to be operationalising the Government. However, because the Motion is for 25 per cent, I am begging my colleagues to see this point; that we need to put in some discipline in Government. The Government needs to look at what Parliament is suggesting. We need to do the correct thing, which is the oversight business that our side is supposed to be undertaking For example, this is what the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance tabled here as the Financial Estimates. I am going again to the same Ministry of State for Provincial Administration and Internal Security since it is supplied by Vote R01, and State House, which is supplied by Vote R02. If you look at the Estimates that were tabled here, you will see that the Total Approved Gross Expenditure was Kshs42 billion. The amount he would have wanted approved, as contained in this Motion, differs from what he tabled. What he tabled in this Motion under Vote R01comes to Kshs41,702,179,390. In the Approved Estimates, the Gross Expenditure for the year was Kshs42,247,328,471. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I sit in the National Budget Security Committee. I would want to know where the difference went. This is what he tabled before Parliament. He is asking for a half of that amount, but the amount he is asking for in the Motion he has tabled in Parliament is not a half of that amount. In fact, what we are saying is that there are tabulation errors. So, how do we approve 50 per cent of tabulation errors? I can go down the entire list of these figures. They differ materially from what has been tabled as the Approved Estimates. We are in the business of looking after people’s money. After the money that got lost, after things went wrong---"
}