Entry Instance

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

{
    "id": 1507476,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1507476/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 231,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Embakasi West, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Mark Mwenje",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1429,
        "legal_name": "George Theuri",
        "slug": "george-theuri"
    },
    "content": "I was in a meeting with the Auditor-General. One of the issues that came up during the discussion is that they must be able to report to the House within a period when we are sitting as a House; that, hopefully, they can do it earlier, within three or four months, so that they can report to the House around October. The House will be sitting in October and November, because we also have another three months. After that period, based on the ruling that was delivered by the court, the reports will become irrelevant. That means somebody can get away with it. The specific ruling was against Nairobi City County. It is a case where somebody relied purely on timelines and technicalities so as to get away from the recommendations that were made by the County Public Investment Committee. I support the issue that has been raised by the Leader of the Majority Party regarding some of the roads and infrastructure that are being done by the county. We need the Auditor- General to properly audit some of those projects. The other day, in one of my wards in Mowlem, in an area called Umoja III, residents blocked the entire Kangundo Road because of a sewer line that was affecting them. The county governments, including Nairobi City County Government, have been pushing hard to be allowed to undertake some of those projects. We must say that it is only Kenya Rural Roads Authority (KeRRA), Kenya Urban Roads Authority (KURA) and Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA) that are able to undertake some of those projects. Some of the infrastructure that was done by the City Council way back in the 1990s has remained largely the same to-date. It is only the likes of KeRRA and KURA who are refurbishing and improving the infrastructure. You can see in the reports of the Auditor-General that those institutions are able to clear quite a number of the projects that have been done by the national Government. We have a serious problem with quite a number of projects that were done by the county governments. We need the Senate to keenly look at those projects. Also, PIC and PAC should audit them. That will show us the big problem with projects that are done by the county governments. I do not want to say much on this issue. I believe, if we fail to pass this Bill, we will be in danger. It is important to notify the House that, as a result of that ruling, the audit committees need to be up to date. Right now, every audit committee, be it PAC or PIC, should be getting ready to audit the reports of the Financial Year 2023/2024. Some committees are reviewing accounts for 2021/2022 and 2022/2023 financial years. As per this proposed Bill, it means that the accounts they are reviewing have been overtaken by time. In fact, we asked the Auditor-General to appeal this ruling. If this Bill is passed without setting aside those orders, it means that some of the work that PIC and PAC have been doing for the Financial Years 2021/2022 and 2022/2023 will be time-barred. So, they cannot act against the perpetrators. It is important that we pass this Bill as it is. I want to suggest that the Departmental Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs liaises with the Auditor-General to ensure that they appeal this ruling so that, some of the reports of the Audit Committees are not rendered useless. We must not end up giving people who have stolen public money a chance to get away with that crime based on a technicality. With those remarks, I beg to support."
}