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"id": 178492,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Okemo",
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"id": 198,
"legal_name": "Chrysanthus Barnabas Okemo",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for your protection. I wish to bring to the attention of the House the fact that 50 per cent of the Budget was approved via the Vote on Account. This means that we gave some blanket approval to the Minister to spend 50 per cent of the Budget. You remember we had a very heated debate here on why it had to be 50 per cent because it is the maximum. Every year, we have always given the maximum. In fact, the Minister was not able to justify the 50 per cent and why we could not give 20 per cent or 30 per cent. However, ultimately, he was able to get his way. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, coupled with that, I believe the thrust of the argument at that time was that how do we know whether it is 50 per cent, 40 per cent or 30 per cent? I remember, and I am sure it is in the HANSARD, we demanded that the Minister should produce some kind of performance data to show us, for example, at the end of October, how much has he actually spent to prove to us that 50 per cent is, indeed, what he needs to get and not less? We have not seen a single statistics to show us implementation of the Budget. We are now basically two- quarters of the year - we are almost coming to the end of the second quarter - and we have seen nothing from the Ministry to show us how they spent the money. I think it is important and necessary for this House to see how the Government is implementing the Budget. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I wish to take this opportunity also to comment on how the Government plans to raise the money. Besides ordinary revenue, the Minister has told us that part of the money is going to come from privatisation proceeds and grants from overseas donors. He has even mentioned that he intends to float a sovereign bond to raise some of the money. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, anybody who watches the Cable News Network (CNN) or even has an opportunity to watch international news, knows that the international economic situation paints a very dark picture on the developed economies. I do not know whether the Minister, in his optimism, really believes that most of these donors who have been affected by the current economic crisis are going to be able to give us the grants they have said they will. I have a feeling that the Minister needs to re-look at that situation. Of course, we know that the time is not appropriate for the question of the sovereign bond. I think the Minister is aware of this and he also knows that it is going to be a while before we can see an improvement in the international economic situation. The sovereign bond literally means that we are raising capital on the international market. However, I do not think that the international market has the capacity at this November 26, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 3635 point in time to raise capital that we are looking for. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, on the privatisation process, at one point, I raised an issue on the Floor of this House and asked the Minister to tell us when, in accordance with the Privatisation Act, he is going to bring the privatisation programme to this House. That is provided for in the law. The law provides that a privatisation programme must be made available to Parliament or a Committee of Parliament. The Minister promised that the Cabinet was going to work on it. However, it is now about three months and we have seen no evidence---"
}