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{
    "id": 1034183,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1034183/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 407,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kitui Central, WDM-K",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Makali Mulu",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1955,
        "legal_name": "Benson Makali Mulu",
        "slug": "benson-makali-mulu"
    },
    "content": "this House, I ask myself: Is it that we do not have the right people to do the right costing of our programs and projects? I do not understand why a stadium is done in Kitui at two times the cost of a stadium with the same capacity in either Nairobi or Kakamega. That means that something is wrong. I have always imagined whether we can have a guided costing price for some of the projects, so that when prices differ, it will be because of the locality. For example, if you are doing a project on a plain ground, the cost will not be the same as when you are doing it on a sloppy ground. The cost difference will be caused by the nature of the area where you are doing the project. However, at times, you look at the costs and even without being told, you can clearly see that there is a problem with the costing. To make things worse, a contractor benefits from such skewed costing and he takes years to complete the project. From the first tranche of payment, a contractor can complete a project. But because there are many vested interests, it takes long. The idea behind taking too long is to achieve price variation so that, despite getting a high costed project, you do price variation to make it expensive. I have always given an example in this House of a project in my constituency where the Government paid half a billion for machines that were idle for about three years. That project is called Uvanga. To make matters worse, after paying the contractor half a billion, not a single cent was set aside to start working on that project and it stalled. So, anytime I read these reports I ask myself: Is ours just normal talk? Have we become a talk show where we talk and nothing happens? We need to move as a House and stamp our oversight authority so that those who are in charge and are committing those mistakes of misappropriating resources can be punished, made to refund the money and barred from getting more contracts from the Government. That way, everybody will streamline the process and Kenyans will start getting value for their money. My heart feels bad every time I read these reports. It looks like there is nothing much we can do as a House. Time has come for us to see what we need to do to streamline the process. If we do so, we will help the country."
}