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{
    "id": 1078735,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1078735/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 257,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kipipiri, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Amos Kimunya",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 174,
        "legal_name": "Amos Muhinga Kimunya",
        "slug": "amos-kimunya"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I will try to take less time than the one I have. I rise to support the Report of the Committee and thank everyone for the effort they put on this general debate on the Estimates. This House is bestowed with a very sacred mandate. Among other things is considering and approving public expenditure every Financial Year. This is a pivotal responsibility when you look at the very root of the architecture of constitutional democracy which was based on “no taxation without representation”. This House apportions the money to the Executive and all that. It is pursuant to this that, under Article 221 of the Constitution, the Treasury submitted its Budget Estimates, which was followed closely by the Judiciary submitting its Estimates. Parliament also submitted its Estimates in accordance with Articles 127 and 173 of the Constitution. Those Estimates were then committed to the Budget and Appropriations Committee, in accordance with Article 221 of the Constitution to consolidate them together and report back to the House. At the outset, I want to commend the Committee. I know they have been working hard; they are still trying to consult on some issues. They had about 14 sittings before they reported back to the House, two with the Treasury, we had one yesterday and another one this morning, hence there is a lot of work going on even as we continue with this debate. This year’s Budget also comes in at a time when we, obviously, have the COVID-19 challenge. The focus is on how to get back to the situation before COVID-19 and even better. The operating words are ‘building back better’. And it was captured very well within the Budget theme: Building Back Better—Strategy for Resilient and Sustainable Economic Recovery and Inclusive Growth. I just want to speak to those words, because it is so easy to put down most of these clichés in speeches and paperwork. We need to internalise what we exactly mean when we say building back better. What are we talking of, knowing that COVID-19 has been with us and it has cost us quite a bit? When we talk of building back better, we basically call for a certain introspection. Building back better means we have understood and appreciated that we are not building to where we were before. Certain people have looked at the call—it has become a scholarly issue. Examples have been given, for instance, within the health sector, especially in developing countries. We have been investing in health, but when COVID-19 hit us we realised that, because we in the political class could afford to fly out of the country for treatment, we abandoned and neglected our health facilities in the country. Thanks to COVID-19, planes were grounded. There was no travel to other countries, even for those people who could afford it. Hence, people have had to get treatment in the local facilities that had been abandoned. So, COVID-19 has brought a new way of thinking in that if we do not build back better, if we do not invest in our health facilities, a global lockdown would mean everyone would have to use the facilities we have. If we do not build back better our manufacturing base, like we are now doing with personal protective equipment (PPEs), it will mean, because we cannot get PPEs from other countries, we will suffer if we do not have the manufacturing capacity. I believe that when the CS for Treasury talks of building back better as the theme for this Budget, the people in Government are thinking the same way. They are not just thinking of waiting for COVID-19 to end so that people can fly out to seek medical treatment or to buy things instead of building local capacity. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}