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{
"id": 1461515,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1461515/?format=api",
"text_counter": 308,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Kitui Central, WDM",
"speaker_title": "Hon (Dr) Makali Mulu",
"speaker": null,
"content": "Kenya where the Government paid about Ksh6 billion for privatisation of this important Government entity. The other was food subsidies, as you can remember the maize flour. Looking at the two items because this matter also came to the Budget and Appropriations Committee, we were not convinced that Parliament had no reason to regularise them as required by law. Most of these expenditures were done towards the election time. There are several lessons we have learnt from this because it was done at a time when the House was unable to approve them. I want to thank the Departmental Committee on Agriculture and Livestock and the Chairperson, Hon. Mutunga. They looked at the matter and were able to single out genuine expenditure items and those that are not. Based on this, the lesson we learnt is that any time this country approaches elections, there is a very high likelihood of expenditure being incurred, which cannot help us at all and is targeted to finance campaigns. That is why I like the recommendation that during any election year in this country, as a House, we need to safeguard public resources. This is by coming up with a very clear framework on what we should spend our money on about three or six months to election. This way, we will be helping our country in terms of ensuring that people do not take advantage of some laws under the Public Finance Management Act, 2012 to misapply and get public money for their campaigns. Secondly, which is important, is that in any budget we do on an annual basis, there is a fund called the Contingency Fund. For example, if you look at the current budget for the Financial Year 2024/2025, because of the challenges we are facing as a country, we have only provided Ksh4 billion as contingency resources. These are resources that the country should use when we have an emergency. Hon. Temporary Speaker, you may realise that despite this money being in an account at the National Treasury, people spend money under Article 223 of the Constitution and not under the Contingency Fund. Basically because the use of a Contingency Fund has a very well- detailed structure in terms of the use of money and you must account for it. Under Article 223, you can use the money and come to the House to ask Parliament to regularise it. Therefore, Article 223 is more prone to abuse as opposed to the Contingency Fund. That is why Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) rush to spend money under Article 223 and not the Contingency Fund. So, regarding that point of the Contingency Fund, we must make sure that MDAs use the Contingency Fund before they start using funds as stipulated under Article 223. This is so that, once the Contingency Fund is exhausted, then they can have a reason to use the funds under Article 223. Thirdly, Hon. Temporary Speaker, on matters under Article 223, as the House and Hon. Mbadi had said before, he proposed a Bill to amend the Public Finance Management Act and the Constitution on the use of funds under Article 223. We need to support the new Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury and Economic Planning so that we can amend the Constitution and get the utilisation of Article 223 streamlined. This is so that as we move into the future, no civil servant will abuse funds under Article 223. In that case, we will help this country and I can tell you public finance management issues will improve a lot in the country. Hon. Temporary Speaker, the committee has said in this Report that it is still pushing for further investigations by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) and other investigative agencies. However, as a House, this recommendation came through the Committee on Agriculture and Livestock, the same recommendation was pushed by the Budget and Appropriations Committee. Now, the Public Petitions Committee..."
}