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{
    "id": 1259707,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1259707/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 97,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Marakwet East, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Kangogo Bowen",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Hon Temporary Speaker, for giving me this opportunity to support this Supplementary Appropriation (No.2) Bill. As the Budget and Appropriations Committee Chair has said, this is a realignment from the previous Supplementary Budget. There is a lot required, especially in the education sector. There is very little disbursement, especially on the capitation of our primary and secondary schools. With the passing of this Supplementary Appropriation Bill, we will help our schools which are struggling with liquidation. There are a lot of pending bills which this Government engaged many contractors on different projects. With the passing of this Appropriation Bill, those people, some of whom have taken loans, are going to be paid for the work they have done. Let me talk about donor-funded projects. As Hon. Atandi has said, most donor-funded projects come with conditions. I am the Chair of the Departmental Committee on Blue Economy, and I have noticed that many of the stalled water projects are donor-funded. Those projects come with the condition that the contractor must be from the donor country. For instance, we have a case of Italian Corporation projects that have stalled because they are seeking Italian contractors to work on those projects. It is not possible for them to operate and work on projects from Rome. Before the ministries engage in massive projects like the dams, they must acquire the land. You will find that the contractor has an active contract and is supposed to move to the site without the land acquisition. This delays the entire process. The Government is paying for consultancy at a higher amount than the project itself. I ask the Chair of the Budget and Appropriations Committee to look into this because there is no way half of the money allocated to a project can go to consultancy. The Government has too many engineers in this country but the amount of money given out for consultancy is more than what is required to develop those projects. Hon. Temporary Speaker, what is the role of the reports from the Public Accounts Committee vis-a-vis the budget-making process? The PAC has tabled very many reports here that are showing misappropriation of funds in our ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs). However, during the budget-making process, such reports are not factored in to make sure that MDAs that have misappropriated money should have their budgets reduced to equate what the report is stating. We agree that we cannot continue borrowing, but if there is need to, let us borrow and use it for the specific projects which the money is meant for to avoid cases where borrowed money gets lost without any tangible project. I support. Thank you."
}