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{
    "id": 1058115,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1058115/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 318,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. M. Kajwang’",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13162,
        "legal_name": "Moses Otieno Kajwang'",
        "slug": "moses-otieno-kajwang"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I recall when we visited the National Council of State Legislatures in the United States, I was privileged to be in the company of the Speaker of this House. We saw how State legislatures in the United States do it. We have a PBO which has done a great job in helping Members of Parliament to understand and be part of the budget process. Our PBO is one of the best. When I talk to people outside Parliament, people in academia, the ladies and gentlemen who sit in that office have the respect of economics and experts outside. It is time that we also establish a Senate Oversight office or a Parliamentary Audit Office (PAO). The same way Members of Parliament are not experts in budget issues is the same way, they are not experts when it comes to audit. A PAO would have that singular duty of making sure that they assess all these reports from the Auditor General, coming up with the fiduciary risk report, making sure we schedule our performance and value for money audits. Also making sure that when we get these reports and audits, Parliament is able to consider and process them in a meaningful manner. We need to rethink the strategy of the implementation of our recommendations. In the last Parliament, we had a separate implementation Committee, which would take the resolutions of the House and those of the various Committees and follow them through. Today, once you adopt this report, it will be the responsibility of the CPAIC, which is yet to be constituted, to follow up on implementation. When I was the chairperson and the House adopted several reports the Clerk of the Senate immediately wrote to various stakeholders requesting them to provide a report on the measures, they have taken within three months to close the issues raised by the Senate. To date, I do not believe we have received a response as the Senate. We must tighten our implementation capacity. There are agencies that do not need to wait for the Senate to go through this process for five years. For example, once the Auditor-General has determined that there was no value for money and there were unexplained expenditure, why should the Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI) or the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) wait for the Senate to conduct a five- year ritual? Why can they not swing into action? We must empower these institutions to be proactive. We must empower them so that they can have linkages with the Office of the Auditor-General in real time. In fact, there is nowhere it is written that they are required to wait until the Report of the Auditor- General is published, brought to the House, debated and adopted. They can form collaboration networks using technology. They can share and create visibility on some of the risks that exist in counties so that they can take real-time initiatives."
}