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"id": 1550033,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1550033/?format=api",
"text_counter": 312,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Butere, ODM",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Nicholas Mwale",
"speaker": null,
"content": "the net export. The component which I will pay a lot of respect to, before I go to the recommendation of the Committee, is component G, which is Government investments. Much of Government investments are done and appropriated by this House. They are given to State Departments and Agencies. Much of them are the ones that the Auditor-General audits to find out if we have prudent use of these funds. Therefore, if we do not get it right on prudent use of government resources and taxpayers' money, then there is no way the economy will grow. It will be affected, and the common mwananchi will have difficulty in affording essential goods and services. I will narrow down GDP and talk about real GDP because it is the one that gives us the true standards of living of the common mwananchi . For us to get it, we have to factor in the GDP deflector which we compare with inflation. If we are not careful about inflation or we have mismanagement of public funds which brings about corruption and illicit trade, it will affect the prices of commodities and services. In the long run, this affects the consumer price index, which is used to gauge the inflation rate of an economy. Therefore, I assure this House that the Committee has prepared a good Report that is going to address many of the issues that have been raised by the Auditor-General in terms of looking at the financial statements of State Corporations, Agencies and other State Departments. Hon. Temporary Speaker, this Report has highlighted the legal frameworks pertaining to public finance. One of them is Chapter 12 of the Constitution of Kenya, which deals with the Principles and Framework of Public Finance. The second one is the Public Finance Management Act 2012, which stipulates how accounting officers are supposed to utilise and manage State resources. The other one is the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act 2015. As we are aware, all Government resources are spent through procurement. Therefore, if those laws and regulations under the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act 2015 are not followed, we will have a problem when it comes to ensuring prudent use of public resources or having value for money. We also have the Accounts Act, 2008, and the International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS), among other provisions of the law that empower Parliament to oversee public institutions. This Report has 1,116 pages. It has all the State agencies and Votes that get disbursement from this honourable House. The Auditor-General has brought forward 326 audit opinions. I want to refer Members to Page 13 of the Audit Report. This Report stipulates that on donor projects, we have 216 audit opinions. On Revenue Statements, we have 13 audit opinions. On Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), we have 71 audit opinions. We note that we have a lot of audit opinions on donor projects. Therefore, as much as we talk of forming the Africa Finance Corporation, which I know the end game is to borrow money to invest in this country, we need to emphasise on proper management of those funds so that we do not get a lot of qualified opinion from the Auditor-General. Further, to give my colleagues a glimpse of the terms used by the Auditor-General, when I refer to ‘Unqualified Audit Opinion’ from the Auditor-General, that is considered to be a clean report. When I talk about ‘Qualified Audit Opinion’, it means that despite the financial statements having been submitted, there is some veracity on certain expenditures in respect of which the auditor wants the State Department to furnish more information. In the interest of time, because I know the House is going to rise at 7.00 p.m, and I have my Vice-Chairperson to second, and Members have been waiting to contribute, I want to summarise the Report. We have the observations and recommendations. The first observation and recommendation is on poor accounting standards and general incapacity of some accounting units. Sometimes you might find qualified staff in a State Department. The staff are there and they are qualified, but some of them are not conversant with the laws and the regulations. This recommendation reads as follows: 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."
}