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{
    "id": 1378575,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1378575/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 231,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Soy, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. David Kiplagat",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "delayed payments. That is why we call upon all those agencies concerned to investigate the matter and escalate it further. When the Government has money, it can negotiate with the contractors and get a favourable value for delayed payments. If the delayed payment is Ksh1 billion, then they can negotiate and only pay up to 25 per cent, which is fair. We have circumstances where Government officials enter into contracts, the contractor takes a loan, does the job and when it is time for payment, he is not paid. The bank sells all his assets because of failure to pay pending bills. We know that every time a new government comes into place, it investigates pending bills, which is good. However, let us not delay payment of pending bills because of the investigations that are going on. The committee that has been given the mandate to investigate them should have a time-frame that is not more than one year. The Government should look for money and pay the genuine pending bills. I propose that they can float a Eurobond on pending bills, so that all the contractors can be paid to avoid creating poverty among Kenyans. We have genuine Kenyan businessmen who have rendered their services, but they have not been paid. That is something that we need to take seriously. Another mongrel that we realised is the issue of the Auditor-General and the courts. Sometimes, I wonder whether this is engineered and, maybe, we need to investigate. This is because failure to do something small, a litigant goes to court and is awarded damages worth millions of shillings. Looking at the contingent liabilities alone, you will be shocked at the amount of money that this Government needs to pay in legal fees. There was a case of a State agency which went to the Supreme Court. I do not want to mention its name because it is in the Report. They went there to seek advisory opinion and their lawyer gave them a bill of about Kshs500 billion. This is a pending bill which we are supposed to pay. One wonders if they designed this when they were hiring him."
}