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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this chance to support this Bill. I am here as a Member of the Fiscal Analysis and Appropriation Committee, where the hon. Mbau is also a member. Therefore, I really want to see this Bill going through. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, when you look at our country, Kenya, you will find that this year, the Government intends to spend about Kshs760 billion. With Kshs760 billion, you will want to ask yourself: To what extent has that impacted on the lives of Kenyans? You will realise that the impact of that huge amount of money, when you compare it with the budgets of our neighbouring countries like Uganda and Tanzania who are making it with much lesser funds, is very minimal. That impact is minimal because when you scrutinize the current Budget, you will realise that prioritization in terms of expenditure is really upside down. You will be surprised that, even if you were to look at the Budget of 2008/2009, and take cumulatively how much the Government is spending on refurbishment - whether offices for Minister or civil servants - it is going into billions of money. When you compare the cost of refurbishment and look at the priorities in the village in terms of water, roads and electricity, you will see that our priorities are upside down. When you look around this Parliament, and look at the very comprehensive security arrangement in terms of gadgets all over, you will want to ask yourself: How much money went into that security arrangement? You will be told that it is about Kshs300 million. Kshs300 million is enough to ensure that every home in the district that I come from gets clean water. We are here to support this Bill so that we may be able to cut down on such extravagant expenditure by the Government. This Bill will introduce what we call a Parliamentary Budget Office, which has not been there for the last 45 years that this Parliament has been in place. We know that one of the core responsibilities of Parliament is to pass and scrutinize the Budget. The current law allows us to amend only up to Kshs20. You can only adjust to the extent of Kshs20 in the current law. You realise that you will be amending up to Kshs20 and, at that time, the Minister for Finance has ambushed you with a Budget which you do not have prior knowledge of. The Fiscal Management Bill which is in front of us now will allow us to have prior knowledge of the Budget. A policy statement will be laid by the Minister in this House not later than by 21st March. That policy statement in terms of the Budget will allow hon. Members to scrutinize and decide if it is a priority expenditure in this country. This Bill will also introduce what we call in accountancy, principals of prudent fiscal management. It will talk about borrowing policy. We want to understand to what extent we can commit our country to borrowing. It will also talk about the fiscal policy which encompasses the taxes that we pay and whether we are over-taxing or under-taking our countrymen. The principles of prudent fiscal management will capture all that. This Bill will also allow Committees to scrutinize respective budgets of Ministries. It will allow, for example, the Committee that deals with roads to scrutinize the respective budget of the Ministry of Roads. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the respective Committees, in scrutinizing the Budget will ensure that priorities are correct. For example, we know that we are going to spend Kshs65 billion this year to finance work on our roads, but how much of this will go into actual 3902 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES December 4, 2008 construction? Maybe only Kshs1 billion will go into actual construction. We are aware that this year, we are spending a lot of money to build a residential house for the Vice-President and Minister for Home Affairs. Is that a priority for us? Is it a priority for us to spend hundreds of millions of shillings to build a residential house for a Vice-President? When you go to Europe, you will find that the Prime Minister of Sweden or Great Britain lives in town. But a small country like Kenya is more extravagant than the developed countries where we go to ask for aid. It is those extravagant expenditures which, I know, the relevant Committees of the House will scrutinize, understand and cut down on them. This Bill touches on public entities which we also know consume a lot of our money. Public entities like the City Council, the municipal councils, parastatals, universities and schools are required to prepare a budget by the 28th day of February. This will enable them to also adhere to the prudent fiscal management. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, compliance reporting is the best thing in this Bill. It requires the Minister to comply. Due to the lack of this compliance reporting, the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF) has been under-funded to the extent of Kshs8 billion. The CDF is now claiming Kshs8 billion from the Ministry of Finance. Kshs1.1 billion was not remitted to the CDF in the last financial year, 2007/2008. That tells you that there are constituencies in this country which have not received funds for 2007/2008 due to the lack of this compliance reporting. The Minister has gone ahead and ignored the release of that Kshs1.1 billion and disbursed the money for 2008/2009. So, in a nutshell, the CDF is claiming Kshs8 billion. You can estimate how many schools that money can build or how many homes can be supplied with water. Out of the Kshs760 billion, which this Government is going to spend in this financial year, it is only Kshs10.1 billion, that wananchi are waiting for, courtesy of the CDF Act, which the Government continues to ignore and, therefore, break the law. Failure to remit the Kshs10 billion is tantamount to breaking the law, because the Act is very clear that the Government should allocate 2.5 per cent of the collected revenue to the CDF. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, this is going to ensure equity. I want to tell you that the post-election violence which we saw in this country in January, February and March was due to lack of equity in the distribution of resources. We fought because we knew that resources are distributed by the Presidency. We fought because we knew that when your tribesman is in State House, it is your time to get water, good roads, electricity and others amenities. This Bill is going to ensure that, no matter who is in State House, the whole country will still be able to get electricity, water and good roads. We must accept that we fought because resources are centred at the Presidency. It is this Bill that is going to ensure that equity in distribution of resources will prevail in this country. With those few remarks, I beg to support this Bill."
}