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{
    "id": 190102,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/190102/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 177,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Lesrima",
    "speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister, Ministry of State for Provincial Administration and Internal Security",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 178,
        "legal_name": "Simon Saimanga Lesirma",
        "slug": "simon-lesirma"
    },
    "content": " Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to take this opportunity to congratulate Mr. Mbau for bringing this Motion. In the last Parliament, Mr. Mbau was, indeed, the Vice- Chairman of the Fiscal Analysis and Appropriation Committee, and a lot of work was done then. The whole aim of this bid is to achieve transparency in the way the Budget is formulated, implemented and also to involve the people of Kenya. As you know, the definition of the Budget must include the formulation process, legislation, adoption, execution and audit bit at the end. Parliament gets involved in only a little legislation when we meet here to be presented with what has already been finalized by the technocrats. We may say that we are now involved in execution through the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF) and audit through the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and the Public Investments Committee (PIC). We get involved there; however, the new law will provide for two major areas: compliance reports and Treasury reports. With regard to compliance reports, these will be provided to Parliament to explain how Budget targets have been made and the objectives. The Treasury reports will report on audit implementation. As you know, year in, year out, problems are reported to this House by the PAC, but no action is taken. The law on Budget will provide for what is called \"impoundments\". In other words, Ministries, or public servants, that will not have implemented the audit recommendations from Parliament will face what is called \"impoundment\". Impoundment means that the Budget allocations to those Ministries will not be released automatically. Impoundment also means that officials who fail to comply with audit recommendations may even have their salaries impounded. Ministries will not get money automatically until they bring back the reports to Parliament that they fulfilled the requirements of the audit. Until then, monies will not be released to them until they play their parts. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the other aspect of this law is that it involves the nine sectoral July 9, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 1709 Committees of Parliament, which can then summon Permanent Secretaries to air views and explain the Budget, so that the various Committees can also report to the Fiscal Analysis and Appropriation Committee. The current practice where the Minister calls Kenyans to the Kenyatta International Conference Centre (KICC) for a morning session to provide their views is simply a mockery of democracy. Monitoring and evaluation are very critical. Parliament needs to engage the Executive arm of Government by having regular reporting, on a quarterly basis, to the sectoral Committees to explain the implementation of activities of the various Ministries. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}