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"id": 191037,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/191037/?format=api",
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Mungatana",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Medical Services",
"speaker": {
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"legal_name": "Danson Buya Mungatana",
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"content": "It is important for us to keep watch. This is where the heart of the matter is. As hon. Members said, our main business is to approve the monies our constituents are contributing towards the running of this Government. Having said that, I would like to state that one of the things that we envisage, if the Bill is passed, is to compel the Government to pursue a wage policy that is sustainable and is pegged to the size of the economy. I mention this because I know that I debated and voted for that draft Bill. One of the things we were talking about was a sustainable wage bill. Recently, there was a big scream in the headlines of one of the Dailies, saying that Permanent Secretaries had secretly been awarded Kshs200,000 salary increase. Hon. Members, you are the ones who actually put them in those beautiful offices. Who debated and approved that matter, yet it is there? It has happened! They have, in fact, very nice provisions for admission even to beautiful clubs; these are the most expensive, paid for by the Government of Kenya. Who approved this? Is it sustainable? What if the next time we have even a larger Government? It is these secret things that this proposed Fiscal Management Bill will change and give hon. Members the power to check; they will control how much money goes into what. Definitely, this House would not have approved a Kshs200,000 salary increase for Permanent Secretaries. Definitely not! Definitely, we would have voted to have more money for the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF) and not for Permanent Secretaries. If people are not persuaded, I think it is time we really supported this type of a Motion. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, when Mr. Mbau was moving this Motion, he 1552 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES July 2, 2008 mentioned the fact that we are given huge volumes, as hon. Members, to look at in a few days before the Budget is read here. We are not given the opportunity to really scrutinise the contents of that Budget and the proposed Estimates. What this Bill will do when it becomes law will be to establish two important offices. There will be the Fiscal Analysis Office, which we call the \"Budget Office\". That Office is going to give hon. Members trained economists and budgeters. These will be people who will be able to look at the documentation, interpret it for us and tell us: \"This money is going towards paying for some shady financial dealings that you do not know about. This one is hidden to do this and that!\" They will be employed by this House to let us know what is happening. I see no reason why any hon. Member would want to object to, or fail to support, a Motion that will help us to understand those huge volumes that are placed in our pigeon holes a few minutes before the Budget is read. The other body that will be created will be a committee of the House. It will be composed of hon. Members who have an interest, or specific knowledge, in matters of finance. They will be able to sit down with the Treasury, as Mr. Mbau has said. They will be sitting down to question the Treasury, using the knowledge of our budgeters, economists and accountants, on each and every line item that will be proposed in the Estimates. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, what we intend to do will provide for a period, before the Budget is brought to the House, for tabling of the Annual Estimates and Supplementary Estimates of Revenue. It will be for Parliament to look at all those estimates. Everything will be brought to Parliament before the actual Budget, so that we can have an opportunity to discuss the expected Budget. I will know, for a fact, what financial allocations to expect for Tana Delta District or the Coast Province or my own constituency. I can raise those issues here with the Minister for Finance before they are included in the actual Budget. So, this will be a very good law, which will help this country move forward. We have reached a time when everything must be in the open. It does not matter where you come from or what you do. Whatever you do does not matter. We need to know that this country is moving towards a completely open and democratic state, as we are. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, one of the things that the Budget Office and the Fiscal Analysis Office will be doing is looking at the obligations the country has in terms of the amount of money we, as a nation, are supposed to pay every year. We will have those estimates brought here. The Government will be telling us how much money we are supposed to pay as international obligations to bodies like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. We would like to know how much is being paid as pension obligations to those who have served in the Civil Service and as Members of the Government in various capacities. The Act that will arise from this Bill will make it compulsory for the Minister for Finance to come and tell us how much pension and debts obligations we have. From such information, we can, for example, tell him: \"You cannot go again and ask for billions of shillings from such-and- such a country. No matter how wonderful the terms of that loan are, the country is over-exposed. In other words, you risk mortgaging our state to outside people.\" If it is not us who will pay, it is our children. If it is not our children, it is our grand children. Such information will be available to us. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, if you look at Order No.7 of yesterday's Order Paper, you will see that we were supposed to discuss the approval of a Kshs16.7 billion loan. Looking at the Sessional Paper that was tabled here, none of us would know the actual amount of exposure this country has abroad. We would want to see development taking place, but where are we? Even as an individual, you know that your debt portfolio is so much, your investment portfolio is so much, and you can expose yourself to such level. Time has come for us, as Members of Parliament, to assert ourselves in this House, through this kind of law, because we need to take control of the Treasury. It is our constituents who pay this July 2, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 1553 money. It is us who are supposed to be the eyes of the people, to see to it that every penny that one pays upon buying a bottle of soda or a stick of cigarette or a bottle of beer or a kilogramme of sugar, is well utilised. However, without information, or people to help us understand those documents, we will just b here, saying \"Ayes\" or \"Noes\" without knowing what we are supporting or opposing. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, therefore, I urge the House to pass this Motion and, very quickly, let us bring the Bill, we pass it and make sure that it becomes law. With those few remarks, I support the Motion."
}