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{
    "id": 196537,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/196537/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 63,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Githae",
    "speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and Ministry of the Local Government",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 159,
        "legal_name": "Robinson Njeru Githae",
        "slug": "robinson-githae"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, for giving me this opportunity to make my contribution to this Bill. Before I begin, I have found out that the tongues of a few men in this House seem to have a problem and they are still calling you \"Mr. Speaker, Sir\". I think they had better get used to it. I think these are the things which will be 500 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES April 16, 2008 coming and we need to teach our tongues to say exactly \"Madam Speaker\". Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, it is very clear that this is a good piece of legislation. It is an improvement of the old Accountants Bill. It has given certain specific provisions that really improve this profession of accountancy. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, quite a number of hon. Members who have spoken have talked about how companies have been ruined and how money has been stolen and yet, there were auditors and accountants in these organisations. Some hon. Members have even mentioned about how some money has disappeared from the CDF and yet, we have got accountants and auditors. I think it takes more than having an accountant to prevent theft and looting of public funds and properties. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, my main quarrel with accountants has been the so- called manager-receiver. There is no law that says that a manager-receiver must be an accountant. Yet, whenever a company is placed under receivership, they appoint accountants who are supposed to be receiver-managers. However, if you look at the history of all the receiverships, once a company has been placed under receivership, it has not been revived. I do not know why banks and other financial institutions appoint auditors as receiver-managers. They only work on receivership and not management. I think if other professions were made to appoint receiver- managers, this would change because they would lay emphasis on reviving the businesses rather than allowing them to collapse. I am advising banks, other financial institutions and financial lenders, that there is no law that says that a receiver-manager must be an accountant. Accountants are basically conservative by nature and do not want to take risks when they are managing their businesses. They prefer to sell the assets rather than manage and revive the companies. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to commend the Minister for bringing this piece of legislation. This Bill will amend the current Accountants Act. I notice that the Companies Act has not been amended for the last 100 years. In my view, the amendments to the Companies Act were more urgent than the Accountants Bill because we are still using legislation that was obtained from Britain and India. Those countries have so far amended their Companies Acts to suit modern practice but we are still using the old law. I would like the Minister to give preference to amending or even repealing and legislating afresh the Companies Act. One of the things that are coming out clearly is that our current Companies Act is outdated because it still requires that shareholders meet at least once in year to adopt the accounts."
}