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{
    "id": 1494265,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1494265/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 702,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Embakasi West, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Mark Mwenje",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1429,
        "legal_name": "George Theuri",
        "slug": "george-theuri"
    },
    "content": "disbursed were to the tune of Ksh800 million, but the project is incomplete. Why can we not do those projects in phases? If that money had been spent in phases, we could have partially opened some of those lecture rooms, libraries and have an ongoing project. That is something that the Ministry must look into. They must ensure that we do not have wastage where you just pour in Ksh800 million and if the funding does not come, then you just have an incomplete project that is not benefiting the students from that region. The other issue is on the staff. Every time we sit in a committee, there must be somebody who comes in and say that they are the acting vice-chancellor, human resource or finance manager. We basically have people in acting capacity in those institutions, and it is okay to be acting because it happens. But what happens when we go to an institution where somebody has been acting for six years? That means we have a problem right there. We faced a situation where people have been acting for such a long period of 22 years, as I am being advised by my Chairman. That is madness! There are times you find un-qualified staff who have been recruited. We had one institution where somebody said they are the accounting officer and when we asked for their qualifications, they told us they have a CPA II. They were claiming to be qualified and yet, we required a certified accountant to hold that position. We even noticed the lack of diversity in those staff. That is something that is choking those institutions. We were proud to see some institutions in that region that have actively tried to reduce that. You could see that four years ago, they had maybe 95 per cent staff from one community, but now they have 60 per cent. So, they were gradually moving there. But more needs to be done. Institutions with more than 90 per cent of staff from one community do not work. We noted that they fail. We must check on that. As Members of Parliament, we must be careful not to kill the institutions that are in our constituencies simply because we want to help our constituents. We should avoid damaging an institution that is likely to create more economic and employment opportunities for your constituents or region if it succeeds. We have faced that issue especially at Moi University. I am sure the Chairman will be alluding to this at a later date. Because of un-qualified staff, there is production of poor documents. Even the tendering documents for some of those institutions were pathetic. There was just no excuse for it. We could see a lot of illegalities have been done and more importantly, public money has been lost. That is obvious because of what we have seen. And this must change. Even on matters of audit, we have areas where we could not account and not just for hundreds, but millions of shillings. That is because there are no documents. There is money that was withdrawn and paid to people as sitting allowances and siphoned through one or more members of staff. There was no way to account for it. Therefore, those are the issues that we faced. There is an issue that was raised by the Chairman about consultants. One of the issues that I would want to raise is that consultants ensure that the first money that is paid out is always paid to them. Therefore, if a project is at 50 or 60 per cent complete, the consultant is paid 100 per cent. Later on, the same consultant comes up with a variation and the money has to be increased. Once again, he is the first person to be paid. We saw that at the Ronald Ngala Institute in Kilifi. A lot of money has been spent because it is a project that has gone on since the time when the Late Mwai Kibaki was the President. In fact, I was still at the University when some of those institutions began. I am now here as a Member of Parliament, two Presidents later - the Late President Kibaki and former President Uhuru Kenyatta - and now we have President Ruto. But we are dealing with the same issues. What we have seen with those consultants is unacceptable. We must ensure that any variation that is done must be supported with the right documents. We must ensure that if we are going to vary a contract and especially before its completion, we do not waste a lot money with the consultants. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}