HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"id": 1592125,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1592125/?format=api",
"text_counter": 482,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Kikuyu, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Kimani Ichung’wah",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker. I rise to support the Motion. As my good friend, Dr Makali Mulu, was saying, if all the recommendations contained in this Report are implemented by the National Treasury, we will need to do very little. Allow me to pick up from where the Member from Homa Bay, Hon. Caroli Omondi stopped regarding TSA. I remember that last year, during debate on a similar Report, we had this recommendation. The danger is that we only put it as a recommendation but with no timelines. How I wish the Committee had put specific timelines. This also points to a problem with the House’s Committee on Implementation. Because once the House resolves on something, it should be implemented. We cannot be doing things in vain here. We purpose to have a Committee on Implementation not to just hold meetings in rooms up here and wait for allowances, but to hold meetings and follow up on all House resolutions. I do not think there is any other resolution that is as important as the resolutions we make on finance matters, especially around the issue of debt. I remember saying in this House about six ago; that, there are bureaucrats in government who will never allow at their own volition, implementation of TSA. Because they are minting hundreds of millions of shillings by hauling money in bank accounts and getting kickbacks from commercial banks. That is how it is. I can say so without fear of contradiction because I know it is the truth. I have been an auditor in this country. I have worked in the financial services sector. I know what happens. Therefore, it is up to the Committee on Implementation of this House to ensure that the particular recommendation on TSA is actualised. How I wish you could insert a small amendment to introduce a timeline on implementation of the TSA system. Give them 30 to 45 days. As a House, and as society, we all live in this country. Last year, during the State of the Nation Address, none other than President William Ruto pronounced himself in this House, and asked the National Treasury that by the first quarter of 2025, everybody must be on e- procurement. Now that we are at the tail-end of the second quarter, we must ask ourselves, ‘Are we on e-procurement in all sectors of government?’ There should be follow-up on action being taken on such pronouncements, by those who ought to be taking action. That is none other than the Committees of this House. They must ensure that whatever is pronounced in this House is implemented. If such pronouncements are not followed through, and no action is taken by those who ought to do so – including the committees of this House, which are mandated to ensure that whatever is pronounced in this House is implemented – we will go through the Motions every year saying that we should embrace the TSA system. The President will pronounce himself on the question of e-procurement but it will never be done because people eat heavily from the manual procurement processes that exist. In some government parastatals, interestingly, you find a procurement process that is skewed in a way that it will only go to one contractor or service provider. The Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) jots down an opinion and attempts to stop that procurement process. Two or three weeks later, the same agency, PPRA, gives it a go-ahead and then you wonder why it stopped it in the first place. All these things can only end if we go to e-procurement. That is why we must support what the President pronounced on e-procurement because it has a bearing on our debt levels. The huge amounts of pending bills emanate from procurement processes that take forever. People procure towards the end of the financial year, like now, and incur expenditure but they do not pay. They are rolled over to July in a new financial year, and such expenditure end up accumulating into pending bills. We must assist the President. We must assist the country because ensuring the implementation of TSA and e-procurement will help Kenyans. I hope the Cabinet Secretary and Principal Secretary for the National Treasury and Economic Planning are listening to this debate. If they are, because they will come here tomorrow, I hope 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."
}