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{
    "id": 1222575,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1222575/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 209,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "so as to increase the consideration of BPS from 14 days to 28 days. This will give departmental committees ample time to query budget ceilings and estimates of MDAs they oversee. Also, we have noted that when the departmental chairs appear before Budget and Appropriations Committee, we usually allocate them around 30 to 45 minutes. Some of the departmental committees are overseeing very monumental departments and SAGAs. Therefore, it is improper that chairs appear before us and we afford them only 30 minutes. The reason for amending the PFM Act is so that going forward, especially next year, we will only be allocating not more than six departmental chairs to appear before the Budget Committee in a day so that we have serious interrogations because this is a very serious exercise. Therefore, we will be seeking to do that so that we can take enough time to make our budget. With regard to this BPS, we are now in the process of budget making and there are several considerations that we made as the Committee. One of those issues that we considered is on the basis of how countries grow especially using the evidence that is there – using countries have ascended to economic growth. From ages to the modern economy, one of the elements that make a country grow is for a country to exploit all agricultural resources they have and make sure it cultivates every cultivatable acre. In the same breath, economies grow when they realise the potential they have in terms of natural resources. In the allocation of the ceilings that we have done, we have taken cognisance of the fact that our country is endowed in terms of agricultural resources and arable land. Generally, as a continent, we are endowed massively. Also, we have a lot of natural resources which are primary in nature. We have done nothing to deserve them. We got them as natural resources. The second element that make a country grows is value addition of every raw product that cannot be consumed in its primary form. We have to add value to the products that we cultivate in our farms and add value to the minerals that we get almost for free either underneath or over the soil like forests. That is one, and two, in terms of exploring and exploiting natural resources and also agricultural resources, we also do value addition. That process requires human resource. That cannot happen when we do not have a healthy and skilled human resource. That is why in this BPS, we have gone ahead to make sure that we take care of healthcare. Healthcare in economic terms is the maintenance cost of labour, that is, human capital. That is what on the health side is called healthcare. On the same side, for this human capital to be improved, a raw person must go to school and acquire skills. In the same breath, we have made sure that we have allocated enough ceiling to add value to the human resource that we have in the country by adding tangible practical skills. That is why we have given cognisance to higher education, especially Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVETs). Their main domain is to make sure that we polish our human capital even as the healthcare sector maintains the same human capital. Hon. Speaker, many developed countries limit their extravagance and taste to products produced within their countries. Many stable economies including South Korea, Vietnam and others make sure that they match the expenditure aspirations of their citizenry by having production lines that satisfy local demand. A country which must import commodities because of necessity must compensate the same with equivalent exports, so that it does not become an economy that haemorrhages foreign currency. In fact, economically speaking, it is more plausible to pay Ksh20 for a locally produced item where money remains within the country, than to pay Ksh10 for a similar item that is imported, in which case money leaves the country. Therefore, this speaks to what we were considering as the Budget and Appropriations Committee of this House. We have to ensure that we open up production in our country and satisfy local demand. We should also look for markets far and wide to export whatever we produce as surplus. I just want to give a few figures in regard to expenditure in the current Budget Policy Statement that we are considering. I want Members to move with me. The Budget is 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."
}