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{
    "id": 1213861,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1213861/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 232,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Dagoretti North, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Beatrice Elachi",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "In this Report, since the new Constitution came into place, the National Treasury is mandated to ensure the budget that is brought to Parliament is an itemised budget - a budget that speaks to itself. To date, they have never attempted to do that. They have failed the country and that is why we are in this crisis. We have so many gaps and people just take advantage of the country and we end up in crisis. The worst-case scenario is when within the Executive, the cabinet secretaries just go and sign up for loans. You are not given the loan, you are not using, but we are servicing it. Why can we not have a recommendation that provides that any loan that we have never spent or never received, the money is sent back? We would rather have a painful situation where you pay, but let it go because we are not using it. We have not even started spending it, but you have started paying the principal on the same date. When you look at that, you will realise that in Kenya, we collect revenue, put it together and spend again. It finds itself in a very, very dicey situation where in as much as you would speak to the Treasury, the problem and the culture that we are in is in the Treasury. Hon. Temporary Speaker, the other thing is that within the National Treasury, we need to penalise people on pending bills. How can you have pending bills in the National Government–Constituencies Development Fund (NG-CDF)? People are saying that I still have a pending bill yet it was a budget that was done knowing very well that there was money for that project. What happened to the money? This is happening because we do not have a mechanism of penalising some of these things. You cannot tell me that you can initiate a project when you know there is no money. It is either a Public Private Partnership or the Government or the county has money to do a project. We have to hold accountable those who decide to change a whole budget and take the money that was meant for a project. It is time we came up with mechanisms and that is why this Committee was formed. We must put up mechanisms to ensure that we also penalise officers in the Government who just decide to take loans. If you are being forced by the Executive to take the loan, then it is important for you to come to Parliament to get approval so that we do not end up with the same questions that we are now asking. The other day, the Auditor-General said something very interesting that we now need to assist those who have taken money to invest in our country. As I finalise, the worst is on our own pension. A pension that has an interest rate where you are told that you must pay before 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."
}