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{
    "id": 1439476,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1439476/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 786,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Homa Bay County, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Atieno Bensuda",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Speaker, for giving me this opportunity. I also rise to support the Report tabled here by the Debt and Privatisation Committee. However, all these recommendations revolve around regulations or frameworks to be provided and implemented by the National Treasury. I will deviate a little from this. As my colleague, Hon. Eve Obara has mentioned, the policies exist. The question is: What are the gaps that this House needs to look into and fill? My main concern, besides the regulations, is that during yesterday's debate on the Equalisation Fund, I pointed out that we have a rogue National Treasury. We cannot have a National Treasury which is opaque in its planning; opaque in its policy implementation and opaque in execution and in the expenditure of the country. This country is undergoing opaqueness in provision of reports. The donkey, that is the country and citizens who are being taxed, are more than tired. I recommend that the Committee demands for an annual report on the debts this country owes in development expenditure, what was addressed, what was available and the tax increment annually. I also recommend that this House should demand for, at least, 10 years in chronological order of debt management. I know that there are various suppliers, both local and international, who are crying in this country. There are various industries which have shut down because debts have not been managed. Therefore, I request the Public Debt and Privatisation Committee to look into that. As we look into debt management, what about our local suppliers and contractors? They have not been paid huge debts. I register and let it go on record that there are contractors who have perished and died and left their families in a very bad state because they are owed debts. I know that we are waiting for the reading of the big monster tomorrow, that is, the Budget. We are very keen on heavily increasing tax. We say that we do not want to borrow and as an Hon. Member has stated, no one wants to live beyond their means. But, the question is, for the last 20 or 30 years this country has been borrowing and running. Therefore, tax should be increased gradually, systematically and in a manageable manner. We realise that, in as much as we are charged with payment of exorbitant tax in this country, debt is still a huge monster. We should check the variability and the margin difference of tax that this country is supposed to pay. I request the Public Debt and Privatisation Committee to move around this country even though we are talking about debt management and policy regulation. There are actual projects in this country that should be checked to ascertain whether their implementation was concluded. This is because at times we may be paying international debts which do not exist. Therefore, there is lack of transparency in the National Treasury. It is high time, as I mentioned yesterday, the National Treasury was swept properly so that we do not have people demonstrating and crying for salaries. We are talking of huge debts and yet there is no medicine in our hospitals and infrastructural facilities do not exist in our counties. The roads are in bad condition yet we talk of living within our means. The other day President Yoweri Museveni 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."
}