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{
    "id": 1216818,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1216818/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 99,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Teso South, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Mary Emaase",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Speaker for the opportunity. At the outset, I support the Report of the Budget and Appropriations Committee. The Supplementary Budget is anchored in Article 223. I want to emphasize that this expenditure on the Supplementary Budget has been abused because this Article clearly stipulates circumstances under which Government can spend without the approval of Parliament and later on submit expenditure to this House for approval. This is only in three circumstances: either there was no appropriation for that particular expenditure, or there was insufficient appropriation or a new expenditure that is considered urgent in nature, or there is a withdrawal from the Consolidated Fund. Therefore, having looked at the Supplementary Estimates that were put before our committee, we made a number of observations. There are new expenditures in recurrent development that were being brought forward yet the supplementary is basically about reallocation of money from one vote to the other. This could be for various reasons like low absorption, or because within the time remaining that particular programme is not prepared to absorb the funds. We also noted that most of the MDAs attempted to introduce new expenditure. This is why you are seeing expenditures like payment of Kshs6 billion to Telkom Kenya. We upheld the recommendations of the Departmental Committee because there was either unsatisfactory information given, or we did not get proper documentation to support such expenditure. As the BAC, we also rejected those expenditures. Hon. Speaker, I also want to add my voice to the issue of pending bills. This has become a cancer in this country. I think it is time we stamped our authority and made certain resolutions or took stringent measures as Members to address the issue of pending bills. If we do not do this then it is going to kill the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and the hustlers that we are trying to promote. We have a number of stalled projects in the counties and constituencies. The situation is aggravated by transitions from one Government to the other, where we have a new leader coming in and starts a completely new project yet the ongoing projects are completely ignored. We are, therefore, saying we need to make certain amendments to the existing legislation, including the Public Finance Management (PFM) Act and at policy level so that something is done about pending bills. We have seen some contractors commit suicide while some have had their property auctioned after borrowing money to honour tenders, which five to 10 years down the line they have not been paid. That is an area we noted that requires our attention as Members of this House. We also noted that a number of Ministries and Departments have long lists of priorities, not to mention the wish lists. Therefore, the resources allocated to the various programmes are inadequate. At the end of the day, you find MDAs undertaking so many programmes which are still incomplete by the end of one, two or three years, because the projects are underfunded. They are always looking for funding either through the main Budget or the supplementary budget. Going forward, there is need to identify key priority areas, sufficiently fund them and complete those programmes so that Kenyans can get value for money."
}