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{
    "id": 141124,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/141124/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 236,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Dr. Eseli",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 141,
        "legal_name": "David Eseli Simiyu",
        "slug": "david-eseli"
    },
    "content": "Thank you Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, for giving me this chance to support this Vote of the Ministry of Medical Services. Owing to time constraints, I will move very fast. First of all, it is pointless to make Ministries make strategic plans when their budgetary allocations cannot enable them to meet these plans. They have performance contracts. How will they possibly meet their performance contracts when they are not given the means by which they can perform? The whole Estimates for the Ministry of Medical Services showed that there was a shortfall somewhere and a very serious one considering that we were part of the signatories that accepted that 15 per cent of our budgetary allocation would go to health and yet we are not doing that. The idea that it should have been 15 per cent was not a figure that was just picked off from somewhere without any reasonable thought being put into it. There is a reason why it was said that 15 per cent of our budgetary allocation should go to the health sector because that is the only way we would take care of our growing population like the one we are dealing with in Kenya right now. So, the issue of inadequate funding needs to be looked at because if we knock out buying ambulances totally, then we are fighting the medical systems that we are setting up. The ambulances are an essential tool in the referral system of the hospital system in this country. If we do not have ambulances, then the referral system virtually breaks down. I think it is important that if we knock out things from the budget, we should know which we ones which should knock out and which ones not to knock out. While I say that, I would like the Ministry to be aware of one fact that we brought out. I think it is important that I bring it out again. Possibly, there is some money that the Ministry is not looking at. This is what we call Appropriations-in-Aid at district hospital level and at the provincial hospital level. I fear we are losing a lot of money because we do not have enough personnel in the accounts department and computerization to collect funds adequately from those levels. I believe we can increase the money that ends up in the Treasury from that source. I fear a lot of money is being lost at that level, unless we put in place good accounting measures."
}