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{
    "id": 1082979,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1082979/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 218,
    "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": "of the Constitution amounting to Ksh26.8 billion, majority of it going towards infrastructure. It was actually going towards paying pending bills. As I conclude because this is a matter that we have already canvassed here, the Committee recommends that this House resolve to: (i) Reverse the proposal of the Budget and Appropriations Committee (BAC) reports on the Supplementary Estimates No.2 for the 2020/2021 Financial Year to reallocate Ksh150 million meant for Olooria Dam to various water pans in Kajiado South Constituency. There was no single piece of land that they were able to acquire so that they could build the Ksh150 million dam. So, they decided that they split it into small water pans. (ii) Approves the Second Schedule attached in the Supplementary Appropriations Bill (National Assembly Bill No.33 of 2021) with very minimal amendments, as contained in the Order Paper. The proposed amendments are provided in Annex 1. (iii) That the various ministries, state departments and agencies prioritise payment of pending bills within the current resource for the 2020/2021 Financial Year. The Cabinet Secretary (CS) for National Treasury and Planning was here making his remarks on the revenue raising measures and the Budget highlights. He was very categorical that the ministries have been directed to pay all pending bills by tomorrow. He also directed the county governments to also pay the pending bills by tomorrow. We have not seen this coming through because we have not seen any provision towards the same. Moving forward, this is a serious issue; this is a cancer that is slowly developing in our country whereby Government agencies are provided with services and goods but they are not paying. Every other year we are accumulating pending bills. There are too many traders, every Monday, if you look at the newspapers of national circulation, you see about seven or so pages of Kenyans being auctioned. Their only mistake was to supply services to Government agencies. We will repeat this until they listen: The first charge should always be pending bills but it is not happening. You will see new projects being done but nothing being done on the pending bills. We have continued pushing it. Hon. Speaker, some few cases like in the Ministry of Health have a lot of pending bills. If you go also to the Ministry of Energy, Kenya Electricity Transmission Company Limited (KETRACO) has many pending bills. If you go to National Youth Service (NYS), despite the history of NYS, there are very many people who did genuine business with Government but they have not been paid. So, this is something that we need to keep on pushing. With those few remarks, I also want to give notice that there are a few amendments that I will be moving in the Committee of the whole House. Basically, some of them are to make sure that we tidy up the document. With that, I beg to move and request the Leader of the Minority Party, Hon. John Mbadi to second. I thank you."
}