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{
    "id": 1026630,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1026630/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 346,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Homa Bay CWR, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Ms.) Gladys Wanga",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 590,
        "legal_name": "Gladys Atieno Nyasuna",
        "slug": "gladys-atieno-nyasuna"
    },
    "content": " It is the Public Finance Management (Amendment) (No.2) Bill (National Assembly Bill No.23 of 2020). It is the second Public Finance Management (PFM) amendment. I thank the Leader of Majority Party for moving. This is my maiden assignment as the Chairperson of the Departmental Committee on Finance and National Planning. With your permission, allow me to digress and thank the Departmental Committee on Finance and National Planning for according me this opportunity to lead this important Committee. I thank you, Hon. Speaker, for your support and guidance through this period of orientation. There has been no honeymoon. It has been to hit the road and run. I thank the leadership of the Majority Party and the Leadership of the Minority Party led by the Hon. John Mbadi and the Minority Whip. I thank the outgoing Chair of the Departmental Committee on Finance and National Planning, Hon. Limo, for the work that he did while he held this position. We will build on that work. The staff of the Committee have been kind to acquit me as quickly as possible to the workings of the Committee. For the record, this Bill was committed to the Departmental Committee on Finance and National Planning and consequently, on 13th July, the Clerk of the National Assembly placed an advert in the newspapers inviting interested members of the public and other stakeholders to submit their proposals. During the COVID-19 period people can say that there was no public participation. We received a few submissions from relevant stakeholders that I will share in the course of my seconding of this Bill. The Leader of the Majority Party mentioned that the PFM Act anticipates the Government to provide credit guarantees, including private borrowers. However, the conditions that have been put are such that MSMEs cannot fit within that framework. If one of the conditions for private borrowers is that they must provide security, then MSMEs will not be able to provide security. The other condition is that they must take this guarantee for capital investments. We know that under the COVID-19 circumstances, MSMEs are suffering. They need money for their day to day running. So, some of these conditions cannot allow the current framework to have Government guaranteeing private borrowers who are MSMEs. That is why the National Treasury has brought these amendments, so that we create a framework within which conditions are set in a way that MSMEs can afford to borrow. The other key amendment is on reporting. Currently, the PFM act anticipates the National Treasury to report on each and every guarantee, for example, on the amount of the guarantee and the period. If you do that with MSMEs which are going to be guaranteed using the Ksh3 billion that his Excellency the President set aside in the economic stimulus, which is going to be guaranteed in thousands, it will make it impracticable for Treasury to report on each guarantee. That is why the amendments are providing that in bulk, Treasury can report on the MSMEs every year as per the PFM Act."
}