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{
    "id": 105439,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/105439/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 324,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Mbau",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 182,
        "legal_name": "Elias Peter Mbau",
        "slug": "elias-mbau"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, for that ruling. I think I need to remind Members that when the Fiscal Management Bill, which eventually became an Act, was moved in this House by myself, you all remember what opposition we encountered from the Government and you also remember at some point in time, the same was declined from being accented to. Then we had to go an extra mile of work to ensure that this law becomes enforceable. I appreciate that you know the gravity of the matters we are pushing forward but you also know that we are trying to get involved or rather become partners in the budget making process so that we are able to play our oversight role more effectively. They would not want that. So, I think we just relax and do our bit and ensure that we have completed our bit. It may even be better. We shall adopt the report more easily and quickly. The HANSARD will remain a permanent record. They may at one point or another one want to refer to what was recommended. We shall ourselves thereafter be asking them to implement what we shall have done. We have had what we call within-the-year reallocation. The Committee observed that the Budget Policy Statement does not give any administrative guidelines on the in-year variations of the budget and noted that there are no legal guidelines or administrative procedures that guide so that one morning you can wake up and find the Minister for Finance has decided to take a certain chunk of money from one Vote to another without any due reference to the House. The Committee is concerned that such re-allocations have been going up over the past years and more specifically, during this ending financial year. It, therefore, recommends that re-allocations should be pegged to no more than 8 percent of the total vote head in any Ministry. This will ensure that in-year pressures from Ministries to the Ministry of Finance are contained. And we need to note that the IMF and other international lenders that monitor the performance of economies advocate for variations of between 5 to 8 percent. So, this ensures there is predictability and stability in budgeting and execution. The Committee, more specifically, recommends the following few items:- 1. That this House recommends to the Executive that there be closer linkage between the Ministry of Planning, National Development and Vision 2030 and the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and Ministry of Finance so as to ensure that the Budget is closely linked to the national strategic agenda, and the Ministerial Strategic Plans be the basis of the budgeting process. 2. That in the interest of ensuring that there is better prioritization and that the debt is brought down to sustainable levels of not more than 42 per cent of the GDP as recommended, we also recommend that in the Budget Policy Statement, as a guide to the finalization of the Budget, the Budget deficit for the next financial year excluding grants should not be more than Kshs192.3 billion, and that the net domestic borrowing not to exceed Kshs95.3 billion. This will mean that any additional expenditure requirements should be allowed only if there are new resources. 3. In order to make the Budget more predictable and for the Ministries to respect it as a tool for planning and development as approved by Parliament, it is proposed that for the next financial years, variations should be limited to not more than 8 per cent of the gross provision of any Vote Head for any Ministry. 4. No new programmes should be started in the course of the financial years except for emergency expenditures. There should be no new items during the Supplementary Budget as happened yesterday. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, therefore, this House should instruct the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and Ministry of Finance to inform all Ministries to ensure that all important expenditures are included in the Budget and in case of any new project, the same must be reported to Parliament through the Budget. In order to reduce the leakage on Appropriations-in-Aid (A-in-A), this House should instruct the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance to urgently review all the A-in-As and identify those that can be turned into revenues for better collection and accountability. Finally, new projects funded by donors need to be reported to Parliament through the Parliamentary Budget Committee, as and when the grants and loans are agreed upon. I would like to thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, and call upon Prof. Margaret Kamar to second this Motion."
}