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{
    "id": 1076658,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1076658/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 403,
    "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": "debts and salaries and then you remain with a very small amount for development. I have said many times in this House that unless we address the matter of development, the economy will not grow. The cake will remain the same and we will not be able to share any bigger cake. This is where you see the issue of fiscal deficit becoming very serious in this country. As a country, both this House and the Executive, we need to monitor our expenditure patterns. Unless we do something on the expenditure side of the budget, we are likely to continue having a lot of problems. Another area that I want to focus on more is that of policy. We all know that we are now moving to what we call the Competency Based Curriculum. We know that next year, we will have Grade Five. This curriculum demands very regular evaluation, but when you look at the budget, you realise that this sector has been underfunded. It is the same with the technical training institutes. This brings us to the question of planning and budgeting because you must tie policy planning and budgeting, so that the policies are supported by planning and by the budget. Otherwise, you will have hanging policies which will not help the country. For example, many of the technical training institutes are complete in terms of infrastructure, but they have not been equipped. So Kenyans are not reaping the benefits of these institutions because they are not equipped. The other matter that is critical is if you look at the budget of the Auditor-General, it is actually not high. What we are forgetting is that in addition to auditing the national Government, the Auditor-General is auditing county governments, all the Special Funds and all constitutional commissions. Because the Auditor-General supports us to do our work in terms of oversight, I think this office needs to be properly funded so that we can get real time reports to do our work. Another critical issue is that of cash transfer. As a country, we have decided that we are going to support the elderly, orphans and quite a number of groups through cash transfers. However, when you analyse the budget, the cash transfers are not coming in a timely manner. Actually, there is a lot of delay. It can be four months delay. Some are given two months and there is another four months remaining. If it is Government policy to support these disadvantaged groups, it would be important that the cash transfer programme is adequately funded so that Kenyans can reap its benefits. The other issue is that of the Exchequer. Members are already complaining that the NG- CDF money has not been released. This has to do with Exchequer releases. The country is not generating enough money in terms of revenue collection to support the budget. The matter of Exchequer releases has to be properly monitored. Unless we get it right, the budgeting exercise becomes just an exercise in futility. The truth of the matter is that you budget, but the money that is supposed to support the implementation of the budget is not released by the Treasury. We have that challenge and that is why Members are saying “no NG-CDF, no budget”. In addition to “no NG-CDF, no budget”, there are other areas which also demand to be supported. I can see I am running short of time. As a House, we really need to monitor the budget- making process because even the supplementary budgets we are passing are also interfering. We reduce budgets which have already been committed and at the end of the day, we have pending bill. These are the small things which need to be sorted out. As I conclude, the other issue I want to comment on is tax administration. I think tax administration needs a serious review. I urge the Departmental Committee on Finance and National Planning to take that matter and follow it keenly. With those many remarks, I second the Motion."
}