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{
"id": 1241227,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1241227/?format=api",
"text_counter": 301,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Maanzo",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 13589,
"legal_name": "Maanzo Daniel Kitonga",
"slug": "maanzo-daniel-kitonga"
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"content": "because they either operate under an Act of Parliament or they are parastatals. Therefore, it becomes very complicated. At times, these matters delay a lot in court. Sometimes, they are sent to arbitration. After arbitration, the court can award interests. For avoidance of interests, then somebody would not move fast. When you liken this Bill to that, it has tried to import that process. After court judgment where interests are accruing to these prompt payments, you must pay within a certain time, failure to which certain interests start accruing. You will need a lot of discipline. I believe that during the Third Reading, we can amend this Bill to give it more teeth. It has teeth and it can bite. However, it needs to bite more so that we push a Government entity to feel fully compelled by law to pay somebody who is clear to have worked for the Government but there is failure to pay. There is something Sen. Mandago has addressed and as a former governor, he is very experienced. We had very many fraudulent contractors in the counties who would not follow the Bill of Quantities (BQs). If a road needs culverts, murram, watering and pressing so that it can be a durable road, someone would wait just before the rains, having colluded with some county officials, to go and grade the road and it would be cleared as if the full BQs was followed. So, in situations like that, you know you need institutions to come in. You need experts, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), to come in handy. In such payments, you will have a justification to delay if there is an investigation going on or a criminal matter which has risen out of it. Therefore, some of the governors when there is a transition, would come and say, sorry we cannot pay this because of a, b, c, d. If we were to pay, this is the real value which was covered. It becomes very complicated for such a contractor to be paid. So, in the Third Reading, we need to address fraudulent contractors or situations whereby the BQs have not been followed. In the case of a construction of a building, it means the building code has not been followed. Laws come together to strengthen one affair. Now, we have a building code which has been in existence for many years in many countries. Ours is just coming in as a regulation. All these have to be followed so that the Government makes a real payment. So, once we avoid the fraudulent bit, then a contractor who has faithfully followed the BQs and has worked for the county government or the national Government, surely, must not be frustrated by the Government. We have a very sad case in Thwake Dam. There are about five sub-contractors whose employees have not been paid for three months. The sub-contractors stopped doing the subcontracts in Thwake Dam. We did a Bill here for the 2023 Budget which was amended. There was supplementary one which removed about Kshs5 billion funded by the African Development Bank (ADB) for that particular project and took it to other projects. Within a month or so, the project stalled. Right now, it has stopped awaiting for supplementary budget two which will be done when the National Assembly comes back. By the time it is concluded, the works would have stalled and we will be in breach of contract as a Government."
}