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"speaker_name": "Mr. Bahari",
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"legal_name": "Abdul Bahari Ali Jillo",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. I want, from the outset, to thank hon. Ethuro and Members of that Committee for giving us a very, very detailed and well- thought- out Report. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is quite clear that, that Committee did a better job than, perhaps, all the previous Committees. Leadership is first bestowed on us here. We must take it very, very seriously. We have been entrusted with public funds. We have been entrusted with the role of being the watchdog of public funds. As a House, we must do that job effectively. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, year in, year out, those Reports have been coming here. It now looks like a ritual. That should not be allowed to continue because the omissions that were reported to this House many years ago, are the same ones that are being reported even in this Report. In that case, we are not being fully accountable. This Report must be acted upon and corrective actions taken. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to give you an example of the kind of repetitions or omissions that continue unabated and which, in fact, in some instances, are being exacerbate. That is the issue of unauthorised expenditure. That is an expenditure that has not been a authorised by Parliament. You very well know that, that is a constitutional matter. Nobody should spend funds that have not been authorised. Even the ones that have been authorised by Parliament, they must be spend for that purpose and no other purpose whatsoever! That is a constitutional matter and if individuals in the Public Service can dare breach the Constitution and get away with it, then we are not being accountable! We have not done our job! Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, in the Report for the year 1999/2000 the unauthorised expenditure by the Government, which was in contravention of the Constitution, was Kshs184,321,534.00. In the Report for the year 2000/2001, this figure doubled to Kshs364,740,140.00. That is why I am saying that it has become a ritual. That is simple arithmetic and it is double the previous year's. This is a serious matter. It looks as if those in positions, that is the Authority to Incur Expenditure (AIE) holders, or the Accounting Officers, have not taken the Reports of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) seriously. It is upon this House to ensure that the recommendations are adopted and remedial measures taken. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, as we stand here, I have not yet seen the Treasury memoranda on this matter. It is important that we see what kind of action has been taken, and how seriously the Treasury takes this matter. The seriousness of the Treasury can only be reflected by the contents of the report from Treasury. Even if you read those reports--- I have looked at previous ones, and seen some of the common statements such as \"This matter is being followed up with the relevant Ministry\". That is not enough. In the past, we have known that departments which were next to each other kept on writing letters to each other for one year, and no action was taken. We have been given a classic example of the Attorney-General's Chambers, where the Government has been taken to court by individuals and not a single case has been won by the Government. We are comfortably talking about Public Service reforms, performance contracts, and 566 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES April 22, 2008 so on. Such jargon does not make sense at all, if there has been no action in some of those departments. In the private sector, radical surgeries, not like the one that was done in the judiciary, but more effective ones, like doing away with a whole department, are undertaken. These are very common in organizations. I have seen them; we did it in my previous organization. You can wake up one day and say that a department, for example procurement, can go home because it has outlived its usefulness."
}