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{
    "id": 1025609,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1025609/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 305,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mbooni, Independent",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Erastus Nzioka",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13433,
        "legal_name": "Erastus Kivasu Nzioka",
        "slug": "erastus-kivasu-nzioka-2"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker for the opportunity to second this Report which was well presented by my able Chair. I am a Member of the Special Funds Committee and I participated during the examination of these financial statements of 2015/2016, 2016/2017 of the Commodities Fund. Two issues came up during that examination basically on the handover and the loans disbursed within a given period. The Commodities Fund was established under Section 9 of the Crops Act, No 16 of 2013 which was a merger of the Coffee Development Fund and the Sugar Development Fund. The two things that came up from the Coffee Development Fund, all the assets and the liabilities were handed over to the Commodities Fund but during examination, the Committee realised that the Sugar Development Fund did not hand over the assets and the liabilities. Some of these included short term deposits of Kshs4 billion and Kshs7.8 billion loans that were made in respect of provisions for non-performing loans which were advanced to various companies which were already under receivership. These companies include Chemelil, SONY and Mumias Sugar companies. Thirdly, the same Sugar Development Fund continued to recover loans repayment from some of the companies and equally continued to distribute loans to a tune of Ksh2.8 billion within the periods of 2014 to 2017 when already the Commodities Fund was established. That is between 2013 through 2016. The Commodities Fund was established between 2013 and 2016 when it was made autonomous after amendments to the Crops Act, 2016. It is in this breadth that the Committee recommended three things. One, for the Cabinet Secretary to ensure there is proper handover from the Sugar Development Fund to the Commodities Fund of the assets and liabilities. Two, the EACC to ensure it investigates all the loans disbursed so that they can be recovered especially after the Commodities Fund was established. Three, for the Commodities Fund to pursue all the outstanding loans so that they can recover them. This will help them carry out their mandate to provide sustainable, affordable credit and financial advances to the agricultural sector for various services including farm operations, farm improvements, agricultural infrastructure development, support for agricultural value addition initiatives, price establishment and capacity building. With that Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I beg to second the Adoption of the Sixth Report of the Special Funds Accounts Committee on the Audited Financial Statements for the Commodities Fund for the Financial Years 2015/2016 and 2016/2017. Thank you."
}