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"id": 226191,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Midiwo",
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"content": "Not quite in that sense, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. However, I am sorry for that. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Reports of the PAC on Government of Kenya Accounts need to be brought to date. Looking at the Reports of the Controller and Auditor-General, they are very many years behind and this has bred a lot of contempt because any Government of the day does not seem to care about the results and the recommendations of this watchdog Committee. There are several recommendations which have been made by the watchdog Committees of this House, that is, the Public Investments Committee (PIC) and the PAC. I want to go further and include the Departmental Committee on Finance, Planning and Trade because it looks into current issues that have to do with finance in this country. All the Reports churned out by these Committees are tabled in this Parliament, but their recommendations are never implemented by any arm of the Executive. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to single out the 12th Report of the PIC. In a particular case, there was a company which stole over Kshs27 million from KEMRI and in that Report, it was recommended that a law firm belonging to M/s Rachier and Company Advocates and another company called Cyper Limited, belonging to Mr. Jirongo be arrested and prosecuted by the Police Commissioner. I wonder who the Police Commissioner works for if he cannot enforce recommendations by Parliament. It actually shows that, somehow, Parliament is inconsequential as far as the running of this country is concerned. That is a very worrying trend because when Members of Parliament take their time and come up with specific recommendations, which we believe are for the good of this country, somebody ought to listen. Nobody should abrogate the wishes and powers of Parliament. It is very sad that such a thing is happening in our country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to talk about the road sector. This Report is about corruption in the public sector and corruption in the road sector is the single most reason why we cannot achieve development. When NARC was campaigning, if you look at their manifesto, they talked about creating 500,000 jobs and they justified it by saying that they created 678 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES April 17, 2007 those jobs in the road sector. When they came to power, they refused to reign in on corruption in the road sector. Three years ago, we were told in this House that the pending bills which were authentic were only Kshs250 million. Today, Members of Parliament are asking, \"How much are the pending bills and who is being paid what, where?\" Nobody from the Government side is willing to commit who they are paying and how much. They now even have specific politicians roaming around in this town looking for people who purport to be owed by the Government. These people have been paid a lot of money in the name of pending bills. That is suspect, especially this being an election year. Most of the pending bills have to do with road sector. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, at the district level, the amount of corruption or the accounting that they provide about roads which they purportedly have done work on, is amazing. I want to say here, without fear or favour, that as long as road engineers serve as clerical officers or continue to do the work of tendering, they will remain thieves and that is for as long as we live in this country."
}