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{
    "id": 1459943,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1459943/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 225,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
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    "content": "The accounting officers of State corporations should, at all times, comply with the provisions of Section 139 of the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act, 2015. The relevant authorities should act against those who may have contravened that section of the Act. Another matter that came up as a general issue is litigation. We observed that there are matters pending in court with respect to five State corporations. The Committee observed that a number of litigations concerning ownership of the land of State corporations and other legal matters have been pending before the courts of law for inordinately long, despite resolutions of the House through previous PIC reports calling for expeditious conclusion of the cases. Most reports by PIC talk of a time-frame for conclusion of legal issues. Some of the cases were not even supposed to be in the courts of law. They were supposed to be taken to arbitration. No action has been taken by the various State corporations. In the detailed Report, you will be able to see that. We have, therefore, made the following general recommendations. That within three months upon the adoption of this report, the accounting officer whose lands are subject to legal suits or have other pending cases pertaining to the corporations should liaise with the Office of the Attorney-General and petition the Judiciary to consider prioritising and expediting the conclusion of the cases with a view of restoring the land to the public. We seek that they petition the Judiciary because the mandate of making any legal decision is on the Judiciary. The Judiciary is held in trust because it also serves the general public and the land is for the public. Let the Judiciary put its feet down so that it can quickly decide on matters of land where Government institutions sit and have built infrastructure. Two, we recommended that the accounting officers should strive to embrace alternative dispute resolution (ADR) mechanisms to resolve disputes before going to courts. Most of the cases would have been decided through an ADR mechanism, but accounting officers let them go to court. The sixth observation that we made on the five institutions is delayed recovery of receivables. The Committee particularly noted that the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) was in breach of Section 71 of the Public Finance Management Act, 2012 and the attendant regulations that require surrender of imprests within seven days upon the conclusion of the assignment for which the said imprests was issued. KEMRI sends students overseas to undertake studies, but they do not consider the reconciliation of imprests. Officers go out and come back at will. Year-in and year-out, officers do not surrender their imprests. That, in itself, is against the law. We recommended that the accounting officers should ensure that imprests advanced to officers are surrendered within the stipulated period of seven days after their return to the workstation, in accordance with Section 93 of the Public Finance Management (National Government) Regulations of 2015. Within six months of the adoption of this report, we also recommended that the accounting officers who will have failed to take the necessary steps to ensure that all outstanding imprests within their jurisdiction are recovered from their due date be surcharged the full amount due and interest at the prevailing Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) rate. This is a"
}