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{
    "id": 1081423,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1081423/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 664,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Wajir West, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Ahmed Kolosh",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13507,
        "legal_name": "Ahmed Kolosh Mohamed",
        "slug": "ahmed-kolosh-mohamed"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I support the Supplementary Estimates II with a heavy heart. As we know, budgets are forward looking. They are tools of planning and when you plan, you plan ahead. Unfortunately, we seem to be planning backwards. As many of our colleagues said, if this continues, there will be no reason for budgeting. We expect the Government to spend and we sanitise instead of budgeting every year. We know very well that with Exchequer releases, there is nothing much that is going to be released between now and the end of the month. Whatever we are doing is most likely to sanitise whatever has been spent ahead. Of course, many people have talked about absorption levels. You cannot absorb or use what you do not have. If money has not been released for entities to spend, you do not expect them to spend because the way we do our budgets, there are fluctuations and too many supplementary budgets. Accounting officers must be in dilemma on how to advertise projects and to pay for them because they do not know where the projects would be affected in the coming supplementary budgets. That has a serious effect on what is being termed as pending bills. Our counties do not get releases from the Exchequer on the equitable share on time. When money is released, although very late, the KRA, apart from deducting their taxes which are due to them, sometimes do it with penalties. When you pay penalties for money you have not received, which you were to remit in time but you did not have it, that has an effect on planning and, of course, the entire budgeting of the counties. Too many projects co-funded by development partners and the Kenya Government have stalled because the portion that is supposed to be contributed by the Kenya Government, through the National Treasury, is either missing or is released late. So, the projects stall. Many of the projects, especially in the north which are co-funded by development partners and the Kenya Government stalled because of the money that was expected from the national Government. Accounting officers are allowed by law to spend 10 per cent of the budget on issues that were unforeseen, but what we see is we always remake new budgets in the name of supplementary budgets and accounting officers have no regard for the law and the Estimates that are given to 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."
}