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{
    "id": 133761,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/133761/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 240,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "and suffice it to say that the numbers look fine. However, I would have expected the Minister, at the very outset, to show us how he spent the money for the financial year 2008/2009 in comparison to the Budget that was approved by this House. This was adequately done by the Ministry of State for Planning, National Development and Vision 2030. I think it is the kind of standard that we should set for this House that before we approve Votes, we would like to see a demonstration that there is the absorption capacity by the Ministry to spend the money that has been approved in their Vote. So, I hope that the Minister would do a lot of good for this House to let them know how his Budget approved in 2008/2009 was spent, both Recurrent and Development expenditure. The other comment I would like to make is that I think the Kenya Revenue Authority is doing a great job and all Kenyans acknowledge that. Sometimes I think they are a little overzealous and they go overboard but I suppose they have been given performance guidelines and they are all trying to meet those performance deadlines. However, what the Minister should keep in mind is that for them to do the job, they need adequate financial support. I think the law specifies that they will get between 1.5 per cent and 2 per cent but the tendency has been closer to 1.5 per cent consistently rather than closer to 2 per cent. If we need them to perform and do their job effectively, we must give them sufficient financial resources. So, I would like to request the Minister to consider that. We observed, as a Committee, that there is a problem in the Pensions Department but we noted with satisfaction that a new computer programme is underway to try and accelerate the backlog of all those pension applications that have been taking a long time to approve. We were promised that in the not too distant future, may be in a couple of months, we should see significant improvement in the payment of pensions. So, the Minister should, please, ensure that, that happens because many pensioners are going through difficult times trying to access their packages. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the other point I wanted to observe is the economic stimulus package which the Minister included in his Budget. Our observation was that this stimulus plan should not be uniform across the board. I think the Minister would have done well to distribute this economic stimulus package in the same manner that the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF) has been allocated; that is using population and the Poverty Index (PI). A mix of the two will end up with a better distribution of the economic stimulus package. I am glad that the Minister actually captured that a number of provisions that belong to different line Ministries have been budgeted and lumped in his Ministry but we understand the reasons for that. We hope that when the implementation programmes are finalized, the money will flow directly to the relevant line Ministries. I heard the Minister refer to a Kshs500 million provision for Webuye Paper Mills. I think it is a known fact that we will need, at least, Kshs2.6 billion to be able to make Webuye functional. So, a provision of Kshs500 million is too small and I hope that this was just in order to capture the fact that this is required to be done but the difference between Kshs2.6 billion and Kshs500 million will be made available at the right time. We observed, as a Committee, that the Minister has a provision of Kshs200 million for De La Rue. That is Government participation in currency production by De La Rue. Frankly, we are not satisfied and we are not quite convinced yet, but the Minister promised that he will come and engage the Committee. We would like to understand"
}