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"id": 196789,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/196789/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Dr. Oburu",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Finance",
"speaker": {
"id": 194,
"legal_name": "Oburu Ngona Odinga",
"slug": "oburu-odinga"
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"content": " Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, I wish to contribute to this very important Bill. This Bill is addressing very pertinent issues. As we are all aware, from the colonial times, this profession called accountancy has been made more or less like an exclusive club for a few people. The rules which were in place were very bureaucratic. They made it very difficult for young accountants to come up and be registered. Over the years, we have had this profession of accountants and many other professional bodies have been coming up to emulate what the accountants are doing. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, the objective of many of these professions has not been to help the young people to join the profession. Actually, it has been the aim of creating exclusive clubs for a few people. But as the economy grows, we need to encourage our young people to join the accountancy profession. In this country, the accountancy profession has been abused. As my friend, Mr. Onyoka said, in the Government system many people view the profession of accountancy to be the one enriching peoples' pockets. 466 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES April 15, 2008 Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, I used to be a civil servant. As a civil servant, I know, particularly in the field, where I worked--- I worked in several places; that at the end of the financial year when the Government is closing its accounts, is the time when you find the District Commissioners and District Accountants are working overtime. They would work up to midnight. The records from the departmental heads would appear as if the monies which were unspent were returned to the Treasury. From what I know, very little money goes back to the Treasury because they are unspent. Most of these monies, which are meant to be disbursed for projects sometimes are released late. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, sometimes the reasons for realising the money late might not be very clear. The reason given normally is that there are delays in the disbursement of the Exchequer issues. However, you will find that fake vouchers are prepared and that is when money goes into the pockets of individuals at the expense of offering service to wananchi. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, these laws which are being made are meant to streamline our financial systems, so that we have more integrity in our accounting system. There will be a proper system of vetting people who are joining the profession, so that the profession can retain its integrity. This particular law is creating a proper system where people who are properly qualified are not subjected to the bias of a few individuals. The process of establishing this institution of accountancy has become very transparent in this particular Bill. It is our hope that eventually when Parliament, in its wisdom, passes this Bill into law, it will go a long way in improving our accounting system in the service of our country. The accounting profession which is local has served us well. Our professional standards in accountancy are recognised internationally. Because of this, we need to be very transparent so that we continue to be respected by the international community by having good laws which give protection to our noble profession of accountancy. I do not want to prolong my speech very much. But I want just to emphasize here that the young people who are coming up in the accounting profession should not view it as a profession of \"eating\". They should view it as a noble profession. They should view it as a profession which will give development to this country. We know that the economy is growing. As the economy grows, we need to account and accountants. These accountants must, therefore, be able to propel our country into the new millennium which has very high growth potential. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, the Bill makes the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) part of the Council. The reason why CMA is included is because in the capital markets we require a lot of transparency. That is where most of companies which are floated to the public, and which require closer scrutiny by the public, are found. We hope that this is going to go a long way in creating transparency, which investors require. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, without transparency it is very difficult for our country to attract investors. We need investments. Recently, we had clashes in our country and as a result, many investors ran away. As we now come back to normalcy, we need to be very transparent in our transactions. We need to improve our accounting systems in order to attract more investments. It is very clear that when you take care of a shilling the millions of shillings will take care of themselves. If you do not take care of a shilling you will not take care of millions of shillings. Therefore, we need people who are ready to account from the shilling and then we shall have millions and billions of shillings accumulating in the pockets of individual Kenyans."
}