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"speaker_name": "Mr. Omingo",
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"legal_name": "James Omingo Magara",
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"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, if the report could come out, it could stop the \"big boys\" from \"sucking\" from the pot. It is convenient that the report does not come out, so that we can turn our eyes the other way and continue paying, while killing mother Kenya's children. Our country bleeds under the hands of corruption. Unless we address that matter, we shall continue suffering in the hands of bad governance. I was talking about the issue of roads. A devolved government would address the issue of concentrated distribution of resources. I want to state here that there is a road in my constituency which is about 27 kilometres, whose design has been done and Kshs84 million set aside for its construction. The contractor was supposed to go on site, but because of being a black sheep in a perceived clean den, my people have been denied that development because the money has gone to other \"politically correct regions\". That is abuse of office. We misuse our offices and the resources given to us. That is the more reason why, this time round, Kenyans must stand up to be counted and vote not by emotions but by decisions. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, there are several other issues that have been addressed here. Sometimes when the Government was losing money through ex-gratia payments, the simple April 12, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 613 reason was that an employee had gone to court and got an award but the Attorney-General did not go to court and, therefore, the Minister does not know whether they lost or won the case. Somebody waits for three years then sends a bill to the Ministry with interests and penalties. Most of the money that we have paid is actually convenient and out of collusion in the Government. The Attorney-General was not going to court. The money that was being paid was actually doctored to fit the situation. Contractors have gone to court and they even negotiated the bill out of court and the Chief Legal Advisor could tell the contractor, \"do not worry, we will look up to it.\" This was in order to get a big cut from the same contract. Therefore, the Government loses and the cake is shared between the other people. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, regarding ex-gratia payment, the Government lost billions of shillings in terms of ex-gratia payments and that is what we call compensation because information never flowed from the Attorney-General's office to the Ministry where payments could be made in good time. I want to address the issue of evasion of duty. The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) boasts of meeting revenue collection targets. I want to record my dissent here, that transit goods have found their way to the market, to the extent that we lose billions of shillings in revenue because of diversion of goods. That does not only compromise the business arrangement within the country but we also lose revenue. The people who pay taxes face unfair competition because of the goods which are supposed to be duty-free but they get their way into the market. That is an issue that we must address and there is a recommendation here to that effect. The diversion of transit goods is actually an avenue for the \"big corrupt boys\" not to pay revenue to the Government. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, as I conclude my submission, I want to appreciate the Committee, through the Speaker, the Deputy Speaker and the Clerk of the National Assembly for facilitating its sittings and funding its trips to Canada and United States of America (USA). It is unfortunate that when we went to America and Canada and we came with a report, one Minister yesterday said that; \"when you go out, do not go on holiday.\" We had a wonderful report that would have revolutionised the operations of this House if it would have been ranked for debate in the House. The reports were filed, for both the trips to Canada and the USA, where the operations in the Government and in the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) would have been revolutionised. The reports would have revolutionised the sittings and the management of affairs of this House. But because, conveniently, some of us do not sit in the House Business Committee, and that maybe, the radical changes that we had recommended were not palatable to some people in political power, those reports are still gathering dust out there. The Committee wishes to thank Treasury, the Kenya National Audit Office and the National Assembly for their services. The procedural advice given, records received and scrutinised, organization of meetings and record-keeping by the officers contributed a great deal towards the production of this Report. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, as I conclude, I want to mention something about the essence of strengthening the audit office. It is only fair that issues addressed are current, otherwise we shall continue singing about wastage, but just watch as it continues. We only do a post mortem. We do a post mortem not only on a corpse in terms of wastage, but also cannot comfort the mother Kenya \"babies\", because those who killed the \"babies\" are long dead. We not only do a post mortem on a corpse, but also on dry bones. Even if you diagnose the cause of the disease that killed mother Kenya's children, you will not cure it. Great men like hon. Dr. Kibunguchy who knows something about medicine knows what I am talking about. It is easier to do an autopsy on a corpse than on dry bones. Therefore, we require to build the capacity of the Public Accounts Committee. The Kenya National Assembly cannot also escape blame. I believe the Kenya National Audit Office is fairly new. We need to speed up our operations, so that we are also current in 614 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES April 12, 2007 dealing with audit issues. We should address the issues at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) before they gather dust; that is before the corpse rots and becomes dry bones. That is the only way in which Kenyan children will be freed from the yoke of public debt. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, there was a senior Minister in the previous regime who said that he signed on dotted lines. I will tell you why. Some of the Ministers have vested interests. Some do not know what they are doing, and others may want to know what they are doing, but have no financial spine to stand on their own and must dance to the whims of their masters. Yet, we have a wonderful country, mother Kenya. We have wonderful resources. We must address these matters before it is too late. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I also want to request that the enactment of a law for the establishment and operationalisation of the Parliamentary Budget Office be expedited, so that it will be able to ask the hon. Tuju's Ministry and hon. Koech's Ministry how variances in their expenditures arose in order for them to justify additional allocations. Routinely, our Budget is only based on the previous year's Vote. That is the truth. There is no science at all in our Budget. If anything, Ministries just want to be allocated so much. They retain surplus from the previous allocation and actually increase every previous Item allocation by 10 per cent to arrive at the required Vote amount. It is now time that this country must operate like a business. We need to operate like a limited liability company for Kenyans to get value for money. Value for money is a social good that taxpayers must receive their taxes. It is time we moved quickly to do an accounting system that is going to give value for money, and gauge Ministries in terms of performance. We do not want to gauge Ministries by how quickly they will spend their money. We want to gauge them by how well they have spent it. We are saying that can only be done through Fiscal Analysis Committee that is to be established by this House. The only panacea to our problems is to make the Ministers account."
}