Entry Instance

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

{
    "id": 1545165,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1545165/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 215,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Okiya Omtatah",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Madam Temporary Speaker, another issue that I would like to speak to is another form of debt. This is not necessarily public debt, but it is a debt to the public in the name of pending bills. Pending bills are a major scam. The scam masters have convinced everybody in this country that we abandon cash-based and go to accrual accounting. That is arrant nonsense. How do you do that? A budget is passed by Parliament or county assemblies. Therefore, it is a law. How do you accrue from one law to another without referring back to Parliament? How do you carry a debt from year one to year two; when in year one, Parliament or a county assembly passed a budget and gave people power to collect funds? Therefore, they should deal with that case. We have the capacity to do an Appropriation Bill or supplementary budget where emergencies occur we may not have foreseen. Governments are run on a cash basis, especially ours. It is anchored in the Constitution. When we shift to accrual basis, it is another monster that will eat up this country. We need to look at it in the face and ask how that will achieved. Members of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya (ICPAK) are hollering all over that. That is what happens in the private sector. Who told them that you can run a government like a private sector? We implement budgets which are laws. There is no need of having a mechanism of accruing from one budget to another without going back to Parliament. I know there are countries which run on accrual basis, but it is not in their laws or constitutions. There is a unique feature of Kenya’s Constitution where we have Chapter 12 on Public Finance, which tries to cure mischief that has happened in this country since Independence whereby public coffers have never been respected. That is why we have that chapter in our Constitution prescribing what should be done. When we move away from that and start saying that so and so does it or the majority are doing it, we should ask ourselves, what is in their constitution? Is it like ours? Why did we put it in our Constitution? What are we trying to cure? Madam Temporary Speaker, I am aware that this House made some very grievous decision by passing a Motion saying that pending bills will be a first charge on the County Revenue Fund (CRF). On the logic, they said, Article 214 of the Constitution states that a public debt is a first charge on the Consolidated Fund. However, they read 214 Part I. They did not read Part II, which defines what a public debt is. The Constitution of Kenya Article 214 (2) defines a public debt to be loans, guarantees for loans, expenses incurred and related matters to loans. How does a pending bill, where a county government has taken the Members of County Assemblies (MCAs) on a baseline study and they incur money that they cannot pay become a public debt? For instance, if you have contracted somebody to build a road and you do not pay him, you divert money to pay somebody else, how does that become a public debt? How does that become a first charge on the CRF? We need to get serious. I am requesting that this Parliament sets up induction course for Members of Parliament (MPs) on the Constitution of Kenya, especially on Chapter 12. This will enable us to fully comprehend, as a House, what the architecture for handling public finances is. Going forward, we will be able to engage effectively and according to the book. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
}