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"id": 196565,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/196565/?format=api",
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Ethuro",
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"id": 158,
"legal_name": "Ekwee David Ethuro",
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"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am guided by the Clerks-At-the Table. You see that the light is not even on! So, I have enough time! I will speak until I have exhausted myself. Do not get worried, you will get your chance. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am actually surprised that my colleague who is an accountant can actually say district auditors and accountants are not accountants! Clause 14 of the Bill talks of the establishment of the Kenya Accountancy and Secretaries National Examinations Board. For you to become an auditor or an accountant, I am sure, you will basically get the same requisite qualifications. So, it is in that light. When you have bodies regulating what are they regulating? They want to regulate in a certain manner. The Bill has captured it very well. My opening remarks were that this Bill in the Memorandum of Objects and Reasons says: \"The main objective is to review and improve the regulations of the accountancy profession\". For what? For its sake! It is in order to provide service to the nation. All I am doing is to point out some misdeeds and lacunas witnessed and expressed previously. I want to believe that when the Minister brought this Bill, these are the kind of issues he wanted to sort out once and for all! Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I was trying to state the role of this important profession and its impact on rural poverty. I was trying to demonstrate that, if the money appropriated by the State through the District Treasury can be accounted for properly, then, it would have a greater impact in terms of poverty eradication. This is a commitment each and every Member of this House has to deliver upon. This is a responsibility which the Tenth Parliament should rise to, even when go through the constitutional reforms. This is just the means to an end. April 16, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 505 What are we trying to address? We are trying to address the welfare of Kenyans for them to realise better standards of living. In conclusion, as a former Member of the Public Accounts Committee, and I think in my new dispensation. I hope I will get there, we enjoyed the services of the Institutes of Certified Public Accountants. One John Njiraini who was a frequent member to our seminars and briefings provided an excellent professional input to our Committee. He is a very competent Kenyan. These are the kinds of relationships that we want to have. However, we want them to take it further as an institute now, to ensure that all those people they think are not qualified should not have the title of an accountant if they are not qualified to be accountants. I expected my friend from Gwassi Constituency to be telling this country, through this Bill, that the Minister for Finance should not be appointing district accountants who are not qualified to be accountants! That should be his contribution. But the Institute of Public Accountants of Kenya (ICPAK), through an association with the PAC, did a commendable job for us. The second point that I would want to bring to the attention of the Minister is that this country is very good in many things, for example, writing policy documents and enacting legislations. However, the issue is not even that. The issue is enforcing and implementation of the legislations that this House would pass. There must a continuous audit of systems and procedures. I think the Minister should have a provision to bring those rules that are not necessarily debated, but can be tabled here. After looking into the performance of the profession - after we have passed this particular legislation - he would come and tell us: \"Yes, this profession is playing its useful role as intended in this legislation\". There is a tendency for inertia to set in. They is a tendency to say systems have always been there, especially in Government bureaucracy. You would find ordinary Kenyans who have been working in the Government, but the moment they get into the private sector, there is a different ball game. They are the same Kenyans who are trained through the same Kenyan institutions. But their productivity in the private sector is much higher. They get compensated properly. The same Kenyans who are in public offices because of their low productivity would by necessity attract low wages. It is all a matter of motivation. It is all a matter of making sure that systems and procedures are reviewed on a regular basis. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I mentioned specific cases about our schools and health centres. These are ordinary water user institutions. Maybe, the Member for Gwassi Constituency does not realise that some Kenyans in this country go without water because they cannot repair a simple pump! They lack a small piece of equipment which costs Kshs3,000 because of lack of accountability! Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we are expecting, through this Bill, that there is a sense of urgency for the greater national good, that our accountants will be able to appraise themselves, especially when they work in public expenditure kind of projects. That they will see that in certain communities that are marginalised, oppressed or are extremely poor, in a situation like today where you would watch a television program about jiggers in a place like Murang'a--- It is because of poverty. It is because of chicken living with human beings in the same huts, resulting in the people being infested with jiggers. Fortunately, the place I come from has a dry environment. So, I dispense with such problems. But that is the poverty that we are talking about. There are 26 districts cutting across the entire nation, that are experiencing that problem! Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we need to ensure that those kind of people, through good programmes that the Government, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and other donors are giving a lot--- In fact, I am of the opinion that this country has sufficient resources to cater for the needs of her people. What we need is prudent management, an accounting and auditing system that will ensure that there is value for money. We should move from just counting what--- How you spent a single shilling. We want to move now to what we call value-for-money auditing. That is what this Bill should be trying to achieve! That is what the regulation of the accountants should be trying to realize! So that, when I start my small business, I can trust an 506 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES April 16, 2008 accountant to run the business as I do other things. The accountant should be able to make returns on Value Added Tax (VAT) and give it to the Treasury without us feeling like someone somewhere is fiddling with the accounts or is hiding something! Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, you know how enterprises refused the Electronic Tax Registers (ETRs) when they were being introduced. It was good that the Government stood its ground and made sure that the ETR machines were there in every investment or enterprise! Is it not a wonder that KRA is now exceeding its limit. The KRA is raising taxes threefold than from the time we started. We have to take tough decisions for the sake of this nation. With those few remarks, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I beg to support."
}