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{
    "id": 178487,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/178487/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 247,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Okemo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 198,
        "legal_name": "Chrysanthus Barnabas Okemo",
        "slug": "chrysanthus-okemo"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, first, I would like to comment generally that the way the Appropriation Bill has been treated, starting from the time we debated the Printed Estimates, I think there are a lot of improvements that we need to make. That is not the fault of the Ministry. It is the fault of the parliamentary calender; that we do not have sufficient time allocated for debate until we end up with so many votes and we only have six debated and we end up with over 20 votes being passed by Guillotine. That to me, is rubber-stamping because we have not had an opportunity to scrutinise and look at each of these votes. This is because we know how the Guillotine system works whereby you lump all Ministries together and you give it a blanket okay. I hope that with the change in the Standing Orders of this House, that in the future, beginning with the next Budget, we will have each of these Votes allocated to a specific committee so that they are able to scrutinise them and even if they go through the Guillotine, at least, the committees will have had an input. Since they will be acting on behalf of Parliament, I think there will be some element of scrutiny. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I think at this point in time, it will be relevant to comment on the Fiscal Management Bill which has been on the drawing board for a very long time. I know that the Minister for Finance has a lot of misgivings about this Bill but if you look at the history of the Fiscal Management Bill, there are very many reasons why it must be there. The Fiscal Management Bill basically is talking about parliamentary consultations and interrogations of the budget-making process. Therefore, I think that the role of Parliament in the budgetary process, that is the budget preparation, must be looked at and Parliament must have an input. The reason 3634 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES November 26, 2008 why I am saying this is that if, for example, the Budget that was presented by the Minister had an input from Parliament right from the time of the process up to the time the Printed Estimates are made, Parliament would purely come as a formality on the Floor of this House to pass it because it would already have had an input. Therefore---"
}