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{
    "id": 1258855,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1258855/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 976,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Nominated, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. John Mbadi",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 110,
        "legal_name": "John Mbadi Ng'ong'o",
        "slug": "john-mbadi"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker. First, let me start by thanking and praising the Budget and Appropriations Committee for a job well done. I want to praise the Chairman of this Committee. I think he is coming out as one of the best Chairpersons of the Budget and Appropriations Committee so far. He is detailed in his approach and in moving of the Motion. He is eloquent and I want to support that. This tradition of Supplementary Budget II started around 2016. It never used to be there. It is because of the poor planning on the part of the Government, as Hon. Oundo has said. However, an increase of Ksh9 billion in recurrent budget under Supplementary Budget II is not something to consider lightly as a modest increase because we have just a few days to July. I know this money has already been spent under Article 223, and that is why I am proposing an amendment to the Public Finance Management (PFM) Act. It should come for the First Reading soon to bring out clear procedure of spending under Article 223. Parliament needs to be involved and be given days to consider requests from the Executive. The idea of giving a blank cheque to the Executive to spend at will and just seek for post facto approval must stop. In the Ruaraka land issue – and I keep repeating it – the Committee rejected that expenditure under Article 223, and it remains that Parliament rejected it. But what happened? The money had been spent in billions. We must have post-facto information from the Executive to Parliament through the Budget and Appropriations Committee. They can say what they want to spend under Article 223 of the Constitution and allow 14 days for Parliament to consider it. Nothing will bring Kenya down in 14 days. If Parliament has not dealt with it in 14 days, then the Executive can go ahead and spend. There is also a decrease of Ksh34 billion. I want the Chairperson to listen to this. A lot of this expenditure that is being reduced in capital expenditure, as you have rightly put it, is usually under development partner-funded projects. The problem is usually not with the development partners. I sit with Hon. Oundo in the PAC. The problem is the counter-part funding from the Government of Kenya. That is what halts and obstructs all donor-funded projects, some of which take the form of grants and loans with favourable terms for Kenyans. The Government of Kenya does not meet its part of the commitment which, in a number of cases, is not even 10 per cent of the project implementation cost. That needs to be addressed. You have rightly put it as A-in-A. When I was a member of the Budget and Appropriations Committee, we were moving towards insisting that the Government try to remove this idea of A-in-A and have most, if not all, revenues collected and taken to the Consolidated Fund so that they are expended properly. The moment you allow A-I-A, most MDAs will just under-declare their revenue because they need more money from the Exchequer. Hon. Temporary Speaker, there is the issue of borrowing. I agree that the Budget we are implementing is the last Budget of President Uhuru’s regime. That is a fact. Nothing stops this Government from restructuring it to suit their interests. If anything, they came into office at the end of August. That was just about one-and-a-half months after the beginning of the financial year. So, they had all the time to restructure this Budget to meet or be in line with the Manifesto of the Kenya Kwanza Government. The idea of borrowing because the other regime had planned to do it does not make sense. You do not have to borrow because someone had planned to do it, and you have now taken over from him. So, you must actualise it. I would like to challenge your figure on what was planned for borrowing. It was not Ksh1.1 trillion. I have the figures. It was Ksh824 billion. That was the budget deficit split into net domestic borrowing of Ksh395.8 billion and net external borrowing of Ksh428.3 billion. Those are not my figures. They are even with the Parliamentary Budget Office. Whatever it is, even if it is Ksh1 trillion, the bottom line is that you do not have to borrow. You are the ones in charge. In fact, I want the Kenya Kwanza Government to move away from the rhetoric that the previous Government borrowed, where they found a tattered economy or one that had been run down and people were carrying money in sacks. You talk as if Kenya is a kiosk or supermarket. 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."
}