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{
    "id": 144897,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/144897/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 369,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Mungatana",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 185,
        "legal_name": "Danson Buya Mungatana",
        "slug": "danson-mungatana"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I beg to second. This Motion of amendment is here to make a point that the Fiscal Management Bill has now become law. This Parliament will, therefore, not surrender its authority to the Treasury to be doing business as usual. If you look at the Standing Orders, specifically, Standing Order No.152, you will find that the moment the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance read the Financial Estimates, they stood committed to the relevant Departmental Committees automatically. These Committees are supposed to give a full report of the scrutiny of those Votes within 21 days. So, this is not what used to happen in the previous Budgets. The rules have changed. Secondly, Standing Order No.155(8) states that the last allotted date when we are supposed to carry out the Guillotine procedure is 31st August. This is different from what used to happen in the past where we would wait until December. If you look at this matter seriously, you will find that if the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance had come last year and told us that he needed half of the money because he needed to spend it by December the year that is ending, it made sense because that is what the Standing Orders stated. Sincerely speaking, right now, he requires about 25 per cent. The Mover of this Motion has said that we give the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance 30 per cent. That is in the spirit of trying to make the Treasury to look at our Standing Orders. The Treasury should know that this Parliament wants to take control of what is happening there. We no longer want to come here and say; “We support”. Sometimes we could be supporting errors like it happened with the Supplementary Estimates. So, the House needs to look at this amendment in good spirit. In one month’s time, we will be sitting in Committee of the whole House, and we will approve everything that the Minister wants. If we just give him half the amount and, already, they have taken Kshs160 billion, then we will be approving just 32 per cent, which is very little. We will just be doing procedural things. It will be business as usual. We need to move away from business as usual in the management of the funds of this country. So, in seconding this Motion, I would like to ask the House to look at these concerns. Even Mr. Ethuro, and the first person who stood up to support the Minister, which means we are also supporting him, raised the same concern, that there is a problem. Why give all the money now? What are we going to be left scrutinising? With those few remarks, I would ask the House to support this amendment, which is basically to reduce the amount from a half to 30 per cent, in good faith. In another one month, we will give him the full amount, after we have had the benefit of scrutinizing the Estimates. With those remarks, I beg to second."
}