Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 1478537,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1478537/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 187,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. John Mbadi",
    "speaker_title": "The Cabinet Secretary for National Treasury and Economic Planning",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 110,
        "legal_name": "John Mbadi Ng'ong'o",
        "slug": "john-mbadi"
    },
    "content": "So, we have just changed the responsibility of paying them through GoK funds to a concessionary loan from the Chinese Government. However, we are in the process of looking for money. We hope that by December this year, we will have cleared at least the pending bills on the road contractors and have them back on the roads. I would have told you more that the moment you owe contractors money, one, you are affecting the economy badly because there is no liquidity. Two, if these contractors could come back to the roads, then the construction industry, which has been shrinking, the contribution of construction to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) if you looked at the two years now, it has been going down. It is now at about 1.4 per cent of GDP. It used to be very high. Why? Road construction across the country is not ongoing. So, the contribution of construction to our GDP is very low. That is why our GDP cannot rise to the required level. I think Sen. Mbugua also asked the same question on pending bills. It is a question asked by Sen, Cherarkey and Sen. (Prof) Margaret Kamar. Now, the last question I have here is from Sen. Kisang on integrating our revenue collection system for the counties. Again, I think I addressed this question. We have a proposal, a mechanism and a standardized system we are proposing to the counties of revenue collection. Unfortunately, consensus is yet to be reached. So, the moment we agree with the Council of Governors (CoG), then this will be rolled out and we will have a system that is standardized that can now be checked for efficacy. If it is good, as I think it will be, then it will help address some of the problems that we face with our counties in terms of revenue collection. Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir."
}