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{
    "id": 19503,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/19503/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 199,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Mungatana",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 185,
        "legal_name": "Danson Buya Mungatana",
        "slug": "danson-mungatana"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, in Clause 6(3), it is proposed that the Government’s contribution is a direct charge on the Consolidated Fund. There are so many direct charges on the Consolidated Fund and sometimes I wonder whether you may be having money there because every time, we have pushed that and that there. I am not sure how this is going to be handled, but I thought that this could be part of the budgetary allocation for the Public Service Commission. It is safer that way because sometimes we may not have anything from the way I am seeing things. All the commissions are taking direct charge on the Consolidated Fund. We may not have anything and the Government may end up not having much to contribute, particularly given the debt levels that continue to rise. I want to thank the Minister so much for Clause 29. I do not know how better else it could be done, but, at least, it addresses the problem of dependants. Once a contributor to the scheme has died, the dependants have so much trouble accessing these benefits. I am happy that there is a system where the Board of Trustees is the final adjudicator. They are the ones who will determine, after listening to the evidence, who is the rightful dependant. I was wondering though how convenient it is to convene a board of this nature to sit on such cases, which may be many. Is it not possible to improve on this? Specifically the Minister can think deeper on this with a view to improving it with a clause that suggests that the Board can donate those powers to a certain committee that will probably be more efficient in terms of handling claims. Cases of different people saying that they are the rightful owners may be too many. If you look at the Board that has been proposed, it has high powered people who may not be very available to sort out some of these problems. I was going to suggest that we improve on that section. The Minister can think about it and we can think about it together to make it easier for those who are going to have those kinds of problems. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, in Clause 33, the Minister has made the only mention to a county government. He talked about the transfer of services to a county government or vice versa. I was wondering in terms of improving that, so that there is more involvement and the whole concept of the county government comes in. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I really wanted more thinking in this if the Minister can cover properly people who are going to be in public service in county governments, and, possibly, come out with criteria that will protect the people who will be serving there, so that we will not have problems, or will not leave this to each county government to do its own things. At least, let us also have rules and guidelines that will guide our county governments when they come into effect, hopefully in August next year after the general election. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, otherwise, I think this is a Bill that we need to pass and help the Minister to also think through some of the things we have mentioned. We need to support it and pass it as fast as we can, so that we can have a better Bill for our retired public servants. With all those remarks, I beg to support."
}