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"speaker_name": "Mr. Ogindo",
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"legal_name": "Martin Otieno Ogindo",
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"content": "We later realised that we needed shorter ones. Mr. Speaker, Sir, as you are aware, in this House, we are Members of Parliament representing people, who are taxpayers. To that extent, it is only fair that this Parliament be involved in the Budget making process. To that end, this Bill seeks to involve Parliament in the Budget making process. As contained in the memorandum of the objects, the reasons for this are very well articulated. Among others, I want to add that with the involvement of this Parliament, we are bound to see equity in the distribution of resources. Part I deals with definitions and Part II seeks to establish the Budget Office. The Budget Office is very necessary for this House. As you are aware, most of the hon. Members might not have the time to do their research, and do not have the expertise to deal with budget issues. This Bill seeks to establish a Budget Office, that if so established, will be manned by people with knowledge in economics, accounting and even, possibly, in engineering so that matters contained in the Budget are very well understood by Members of this House. On that account, we seek to have this Bill passed by the House. Part III of the Bill deals with the enhancement of the oversight role in the budget process. As you are aware, this House has been passing Budgets over the years as a routine, or a ritual. This time round, we want to pass a Bill that will involve the House in scrutinizing the Budget process right from inception. As you are aware, in the recent Budget, due to lack of scrutiny, we passed a Budget of Kshs760 billion. Looking at the other side of the Budget, it was largely to be financed through borrowing. Most of that borrowing is not forthcoming today. If only this House was adequately involved, we could have been able to see whether the underlying assumptions of the Budget were valid and are still valid. Mr. Speaker, Sir, if you look at Part III, it deals mainly with the principles of prudent financial management. Here, one of the principles of prudent fiscal management is the policy that relates to borrowing. This Bill seeks to regulate the debt component in our Budget. Today, we pride ourselves but our debt is still less than 40 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). We do not have a regulatory framework that limits the size of our debt. Most of the debts that we are servicing in the Budget today are debts whose benefits we are not seeing. We are not seeing the benefits because at the point of contracting the debts, this House is not involved, yet we end up mortgaging this country for the rest of our lives and the lives of our children. With this Bill, that kind of mortgaging will be put to a manageable level. Another aspect of this Bill that will be of great benefit to this House is that it will tend to promote transparency, accountability and responsible management of the economy and the public sector. I wish to say that most of the inequities we are seeing are a result of discretion. What this Bill seeks to do is to reduce discretion. As you involve as many people as possible in the process, the more transparent it becomes. The Bill seeks to engage the entire membership of the House, so that everybody is able to see what is in the Budget and its reason. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the other aspect of it is Budget execution. Today, as we stand, this Parliament has no say on the Budget execution. What we get in this House is a book containing figures which we then pass and execution takes place behind us. With the introduction of this Bill, we are looking forward to seeing a situation where we will be able to quantify the programmes, the timetable, the time it will take to undertake a project as contained in the Budget. It will make December 04, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 3889 execution definite and within timelines. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the other aspect of this Bill that makes it attractive to hon. Members is that it enhances the reporting system on the Budget. In this Bill, it will be a requirement that at certain intervals, certain reports need to be made to the House on a mandatory basis. As the reports will trickle in, we will be able to track the budget on a monthly or quarterly basis. That increased reporting is going to improve the transparency of the budget. The other aspect of this Bill is that it is going to give this House a microscope, with which to go through the Budget. Mr. Speaker, Sir, some of the financing items like I said before, the Budget rigidity and flexibility is denied because this House has no say on the non-discretionary items. We end up having a lot of money going out of our Budget through non-discretionary items. With the increased involvement of this House, I am sure it will go through each and every item of the non- discretionary items, so that it is sure on their validity. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the other aspect of this Bill is going to be the prioritisation. As you are aware today, the prioritisation process of our resources is in the hands of a few. With the involvement of the House, we are likely to see our priorities coming in their right order. You realise to what extent we need infrastructure and food in this country but looking at our Budget, you will see that there is more funding in defence than there is in agriculture. There is more funding in Provincial Administration than there is in agriculture. That is a priority that is upside down. With increased involvement of this Parliament, I am looking forward to a situation whereby this House is going to define maybe, in terms of percentages, how much of its money is going to be spent on infrastructure and social services. I am looking forward to an improved budgeting process from this Bill. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the other aspect of this Bill is that, in it, we have a compliance report requirement. More often than not in the past, this House has been subjected to a lot of impunity. Most of the times, this House, through the Controller and Auditor-General, has questioned certain improprieties. This has been done always as a ritual. What this Bill seeks to do this time round is to come up with a compliance report that will require each and every Ministry's Vote and Accounting Officer, to give a compliance report that will ensure that all the questions raised in the previous accounts are dealt with before other monies are disbursed to that Vote. This is a very significant improvement in our Budget process because in the past, it has been taken for granted that all you need is to have your vote go through Parliament and you have a field day. We want to bring this to an end and that is contained in this Bill. It is not going to be an empty threat. We want to follow it with some punishment in the name of withholding the funding for the rogue Ministries. Mr. Speaker, Sir, another aspect of this Bill is what we call the Pre-election Fiscal Report. In the past, we have had situations whereby in-coming Governments have fooled the nation that they have inherited empty coffers. We want every time we are going for elections to know the state of our accounts and Treasury. This is contained in this Bill and upon constitution of a new Government, we want to know whether they are taking over what was given over by the outgoing regime. That again is another important aspect of this Bill. This Bill also empowers this House in terms of information. Right now as we speak, there is a lot of information that is crucial to this House. The House has no power of accessing it. A good example is that as Kenyan taxpayers, we want to know what is contained in our public debt register. That is not a public piece of information as it is today. We want to anchor the requirement to avail such important information into the law as contained in this Bill."
}