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{
    "id": 1427147,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1427147/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 225,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Osotsi",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13588,
        "legal_name": "Osotsi Godfrey Otieno",
        "slug": "osotsi-godfrey-otieno"
    },
    "content": "Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO), whose role is to manage resolutions that are made in this House. Other parliaments have what we call monitoring and evaluation units that do that. We do not have that in this Parliament, yet that is the most important unit that this Parliament should have. We need a special unit whose role is to administratively deal with resolutions passed and undertakings made before this House and report back to this House. Maybe in that case, we may not need an implementation committee. However, in a scenario where we have no administrative unit or implementation committee to handle that, many of the resolutions we pass in this House will be in vain. On the issue of oversight committees, there was a request to enhance the numbers, so that they fast-track their work and be current in terms of how they engage with the counties. I fully support that proposal, although the committee rejected it on budgetary reasons. The County Public Investments and Special Funds Committee had 11 Members, just two more than other committees. The reason was to have flexibility to establish subcommittees and do parallel meetings to catch up. We need to revisit that issue so that we help oversight committees to be current. Even though we have nine Members each, the County Public Investments and Special Funds Committee and the County Public Accounts Committee (CPAC) will be the first to start questioning governors who are in office on their reports. With effect from August, we will start dealing with reports of the Auditor-General for Financial Year (FY) 2022/2023. By the time we finish our five years, we will have at least done up to FY2025/2026. That is important because we have problems questioning governors on financial statements of other governors who already left office. The only solution is to fast-track the reports before us, so that before one leaves office, we would have cleared with their reports to enable them go in peace. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I have also seen a proposed amendment to the Constitution by Sen. Chimera, that Governors should not run as Senators. Although the Bill is not before us for debate, to me, it is something we need to look at. It is something that arises because we are not able to do our work. We should ensure that reports are done. We should have a mechanism of vetting, so that those with questions are not allowed to contest for seats. Those who are cleared by this House should be allowed to contest for any seat. I do not see any problem with a Governor becoming a Senator if they have been cleared by this House. Likewise, there should be no problem when a Senator wants to become Governor, like my friend Dr. Boni Khalwale here, who is going to be one. Speeding up the processing of the oversight committee reports is very important. The answers lie in expanding the Members slightly, so that they can have subcommittees and Members who are committed. There was a proposal that you should not belong to another Committee. They can belong to other Committees, but they need to be committed. They need to be there to read The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
}