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"id": 202271,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/202271/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Kimunya",
"speaker_title": "The Minister for Finance",
"speaker": {
"id": 174,
"legal_name": "Amos Muhinga Kimunya",
"slug": "amos-kimunya"
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"content": " Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I beg to move that the Appropriation Bill, 2007, be now read a Second Time. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I wish to confirm to the House that His Excellency the President has given his consent to this Bill. The Appropriation Bill, 2007, seeks the statutory approval by 4180 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES September 26, 2007 Parliament of the Government expenditures contained in the Estimates of the Financial Year, 2007/2008. The Estimates of Recurrent and Development Expenditures were laid in this House in June, 2007 and the Vote on Account was approved on 21st June, 2007. We have, therefore, been implementing our national Budget strictly within the confines of the authority granted by this House. I wish to thank hon. Members for their foresight in approving the Vote on Account so that essential services from Government do not stall. Equally important is the subsequent quality debate and contributions by hon. Members during the Committee of Supply. This House approved the Estimates on 11th September, 2007. I wish to also thank hon. Members for adopting the Guillotine process in order to create room for debate on the outstanding business of this House. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, events that will soon follow, indicate that this might be our last Committee of Supply for this Session of Parliament. I, therefore, wish to request the indulgence of this House, to mention briefly the economic growth we have achieved and the vision that we have for this great nation. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, as I mentioned during my moving of the Vote on Account for the Financial Year 2007/2008, we continue to institutionalise financial reforms. I can now say that we have made effective progress in the following priority areas: We have improved cash management that has resulted in timely disbursement of funds to the Ministries and departments; we have also streamlined the procurement process. We have had significant gains and more will be made in this area when we make the Procurement Authority operational, which I hope to do before the end of this year, immediately I get confirmation on the names from the relevant Departmental Committee of Parliament. On tax administration, we have had significant success on the reforms that we have been undertaking. This has resulted in a steady rise in our revenue receipts, almost doubling over the last four years. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the following areas will continue to be reviewed to identify areas that require change in procedure and other enhancements. The first of these will be the Budget formulation methodologies that will be seeking and appropriated mix for enhanced growth, the enhancement of Budget management techniques to achieve credibility of the Budget through structured disbursements to the Ministries and issuance of timely finance management policies and guidelines. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we will also be working on the enhancement of transparency and accountability in Budget preparation and implementation, for example, in the adoption of programme budgeting that will clearly indicate performance measures and outcome indicators. The measurable gains that we made as a result of the above reforms and adhering firmly to the tenets of Economic Recovery Strategy (ERS). Our growth has been as follows in summary: In 2003, this country witnessed a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth of 3 per cent. This rose to 4.5 per cent in 2004. It rose further to 5.6 per cent in 2005. In 2006, the GDP growth rate rose to 6.1 per cent. For the year 2007, we project the GDP growth rate of about 6.9 per cent to 7 per cent, which is expected to rise to 10 per cent by the year 2012. We will continue to build on the foundation that we have laid on our focus after the recovery. Our aim is to steer this nation to greater prosperity. We have, therefore, through a collaborative process, identified a road map that will lead us to this objective and that is the Kenya National Vision 2030. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, this long-term development strategy is anchored on three pillars notably, the economic pillar, the social pillar and the political pillar. We have identified several flagship projects that we intend to mainstream in our medium-term Budget strategy. September 26, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 4181 In order to successfully implement this grand plan, the following activities, which are a prerequisite will be undertaken. The first one is to develop a medium-term plan for 2008 to 2012 for Vision 2030, through a participatory and inclusive process. The second prerequisite is to constitute the medium-term plan sector teams. The third one is to orientate our expenditure through strategic shifts in budgetary allocations in order to implement our medium-term priorities. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I wish to thank you for allowing me those few minutes to share with hon. Members the plans and strategies that we have for the economic growth of our country. Allow me to now turn back to the issues of the current Budget. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, despite the heavy schedule before this House, I am very happy that hon. Members managed to discuss and approve the seven Votes during the allotted time and the rest of the Votes were approved through the Guillotine procedures in accordance with Standing Order No.142(7). Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we have been conscious of the fact that this House, over the years, has been unable to debate all the Votes in the Committee of Supply due to time constraints. So, in order to inform this House on Budget proposals, we are working on a Budget Formulation Strategy that will make Budget preparation and presentation, transparent and performance-oriented. Therefore, our plan is to present the Budget in form of proposed programmes that will be included in the Budget Strategy Paper that will be presented and discussed by Members of the House for approval. Later, after perfecting programme budgeting performance measurement will be indicated that will make it quite easy to audit performance and accountability. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we are practising those procedures and I want to assure this House---"
}