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{
"id": 1082977,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1082977/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Kieni, JP",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Kanini Kega",
"speaker": {
"id": 1813,
"legal_name": "James Mathenge Kanini Kega",
"slug": "james-mathenge-kanini-kega"
},
"content": "Members of the Budget and Appropriations Committee as mandated by Article 223 of the Constitution, Section 44 of the Public Finance Management Act, the Public Finance Management Regulations No. 42 and Standing Order No. 244B, it is my pleasure to present to this House the Committee’s Report on the Supplementary Appropriation Bill (No.2) Bill (National Assembly Bill No. 33 of 2021). Through the Committee of Supply, the House, by a resolution passed on Thursday, 24th June 2021, approved the Report of the Budget and Appropriations Committee on the second Supplementary Estimates for the Financial Year 2020/2021. In reviewing the Bill, the Committee held one meeting where extensive deliberations were held. I will try as much as possible to be brief because this is a matter that we had addressed last week. There were key observations. One, there seems to be a missing communication link between the National Treasury and the ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) in terms of budget preparation and implementation. The Committee urges the National Treasury to adopt a framework of consultations whereby each spending agency is considered on its own merit and the impact on any reduction or increment is fully assessed so as not to hamper the operations of the MDAs. Hon. Speaker, as we were interrogating the document, we received quite a number of documentation from even the ministries. The ministries have said that they were not properly consulted by Treasury. Moving forward, this is something we need to keep on repeating every other time, that, the Treasury should consult the line ministries. Secondly, the Committee is concerned that the supplementary budget process is proving to be disruptive to the policy directions contained in the annual Budget due to the frequency of the supplementary budgets, the level of adjustments and lack of proper consultations. As a result, the Budget Policy proposals may not achieve the intended purpose. Thirdly, the Committee observed that the submission of the second Supplementary Budget was brought to the House so close to the end of the financial year that it inhibits the oversight role of the National Assembly given the tight timelines within which scrutiny of the same has to be undertaken. We are two days to the end of the financial year. In fact, in some of the cases, we do not even believe that the agencies will utilise the funds. One of the recommendations we have made seeks to ensure that the latest date when the Treasury can submit a supplementary budget for consideration by the House is 30th April of every financial year, so that we have at least two months to interrogate the document to make sure that whatever we approve here is implemented because Parliament does not act in vain. The Supplementary Appropriations Bill of 2021 reflects the contents of the approved Report of the Budget and Appropriations Committee on the second Supplementary Estimates. In the Estimates, the Report approved a decrease to the Recurrent Expenditure by Kshs16,657,599,945 and an increase of the Development Expenditure by Kshs8,480,921,681. Further, the House approved an overall decrease in the total Budget for the 2020/2021 Financial Year by Ksh8,176,677,264. According to the National Treasury, the second Supplementary Budget has been necessitated by the need to provide for the COVID-19 related expenditure. In this Supplementary Budget, we have Ksh7.6 billion that will go towards purchasing of the COVID-19 vaccines. As we are seated here, I have also seen from 411 that the World Bank has also approved another Ksh14 billion towards the same course."
}