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    "id": 146358,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/146358/?format=api",
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    "content": "society, where everybody has access to institutions of learning, hospitals and all the facilities that address the needs of the human beings. I think we are now almost there. I am saying “almost” because as far as the Budget is concerned, we are there, but there is still the implementation aspect. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to emphasize the implementation aspect today. Many people in this country want to maintain the statusquo, they are not ready for change. I urge the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance – and I hope he is listening – to start a process of ensuring that the top civil servants implement of this Budget. Indeed, I expect him to roll out with the help of the Permanent Secretary, Secretary to the Cabinet and Head of Public Service, a plan to acquaint the officers with what he had in mind. Unless that is done, we will not go far. Many officers think that since the Budget has been read, that is the end of it. It is high time – perhaps in the next one week or so – they brought all the Accounting Officers and their deputies so that they can embrace what the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance has read out as a policy. This is because what the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance presented was a policy statement. I can assure you that 70 per cent of the civil servants are not ready to implement this. They are ill prepared particularly at the Ministries’ headquarters. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, in the same vein, I think Members of Parliament now require a workshop, through the Chair, to be organised so that we can work out modalities on how to put in place or implement this Budget that we have all embraced. The aspect that is remaining now is building the capacity at the constituency level and changing the mindset of the civil servants. Many times, what happens is that the civil servants at the constituency level are afraid to say what the real position is. Even when there is an outbreak of Cholera, they are very reluctant to say so. You have to push them to say that, and yet this involves people’s lives. This is because of the way they have been trained and their conservative nature. Look at the private sector, where people in junior positions take up very serious issues because they know that they are protected by the rules of that organization. They know that it is the institution which determines which direction you go and not an individual. Because these results can only be obtained through other people – the manager in the public service – then it is important that their mindset is shaped up and their thinking made different. I want to add that as much as the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance has reduced or cut costs in certain areas, and I am happy that he did that with a bit of caution, at the same time he put a rider that the Treasury will closely monitor expenditure of every department of the Government and ensure that is it cost effective. I re-emphasise that the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance has a lot of room. He may not need to borrow the over Kshs100 billion that he wants to borrow, if he went into serious cost-cutting measures. A lot of money is floating around and there is a lot of wastage. I think every Ministry must be given a target in terms of how much waste it can do away with, so that its budget can be improved. This will be a kind of incentive programme. If this is done, all of them will ensure that there is no wastage. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am happy that the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance could foresee a number of issues that could be raised very easily by the public. For example, on the issue of public debt management, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance has put it bare that it is not a threat even if we"
}