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{
    "id": 1378610,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1378610/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 266,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kinangop, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Kwenya Thuku",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13380,
        "legal_name": "Zachary Kwenya Thuku",
        "slug": "zachary-kwenya-thuku"
    },
    "content": " He is but he is a ranking Member. He has been in this House for long enough and we are taking cue from him in many aspects. As I support this Report, I briefly want to point out two issues. One is the issue of budgeting and two, is the issue of pending bills. Many times, we have passed budgets in this House and thereafter, ministries and departments present their procurement plans and start implementing the same based on the passed budget. They continue procuring with the hope that they will fulfil their contractual obligations to the contractors. But in the middle of the implementation of the budget, we have budget cuts which have become quite common. There are budget cuts in the midst of implementation when procurement has been done and contracts have been signed. By the end of the financial year, as much as there is proper planning by the Ministry, they are frustrated by the National Treasury. This is due to gaps in the National Treasury that need to be addressed through proper forecasting of revenue raised and the kind of projects to be implemented. There is a sudden change of heart in the middle of the budget cycle. As much as we want to blame ministries and departments for these pending bills, it may not be their own making. Not to say they do not have a role to play in it because, in the midst of budget implementation, they realise that they misplaced their priorities. They then find themselves procuring things that are not within their procurement plans. Pending bills means that we are flouting the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) and the Public Procurement and Disposal Act whereby one is not supposed to procure what is not within the budget. You are not supposed to engage in procurement unless you are sure that money is in your coffers. Additionally, I want to address the issue of projects that are counter-funded. Some are funded by our coffers while others are funded by external lenders and loans from other development partners like the World Bank. It becomes difficult to know how the money was allocated. At times, the money is borrowed and projects are not implemented. At the point where the ink meets the paper and signatures are appended, the money that has been borrowed starts earning interest on commitment fees and the principal amount. It is high time that this country thought before taking debts because, today, so much money has been borrowed but it is yet to hit our coffers. We are paying commitment fees while the money is still in the lender’s pocket. It is like borrowing money from a bank and start paying commitment fees before it hits your pocket. We need to put the debt management office on the spot so that they are not happily borrowing money that we are not spending. Hon. Temporary Speaker, allow me to digress to current issues that raise a lot of questions for Members’ representatives. Schools are an issue that we need to bring to the fore. Our students are registered in the National Education Management Information System (NEMIS). During disbursement of capitation, you find that a school has a capacity of 500 students registered in NEMIS, but the money that hits the account is half the amount of the number of the registered students. Where is the rest of the money going? When the school managers ask these questions, they are told that the numbers are high. I am asking this because I have heard many head teachers and principals of secondary schools complain that, indeed, those are the numbers that are registered but, what they are getting is not commensurate. We need to get to a level where our schools will no longer be managed by the school principals or head teachers. Let the National Treasury employ bursars as competent school managers and pay them directly. This will enable them run the schools and be a link between the National Treasury, who is the holder of the purse in this country, and the Ministry of Education. On court awards, why do we have so many litigations as far as contracts are concerned? Every time there are litigations, the Government loses. A large share of the whopping awards 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"
}