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"speaker_name": "Mr. Arungah",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir, for this opportunity to second this Motion. I will start by commending the PAC for a job well done. It is not easy to produce two volumes of reports in one year. I take this opportunity to thank the hon. Members of that Committee for the job they have done. I also hope that this will be the last Parliament to discuss reports of occurrences that happened two, three, four or even ten years ago. It is my sincere hope that after this Parliament is through with these reports, thereafter, all the reports that shall be discussed will be current. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the Government has a responsibility to provide services to its people. The Government does not just get resources from nowhere, but gets them from taxing its citizens. It is unfortunate that it is in the area of collection of taxes where we lose a lot of money. There has been obvious laxity as has been shown in this Report on the part of the Government when it comes to collecting revenue. I will address that issue later. Secondly, we know that a lot of money is lost in the process of procurement. It is the responsibility of Parliament to ensure that the Government fulfils its responsibility of allocating the resources of the country, and ensuring that these resources are properly utilised. If we had a Government made up of angels we would not need Parliament. Therefore, I find it very painful, as an hon. Member of this House, to come here, year in, year out, and start grumbling like every person on the streets. I believe that this Parliament has the power and the capacity to ensure that the Executive does the job it is supposed to do. We are getting a lot of malpractices in these reports. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I hope that in the near future, we will put a law in place. I am aware that there is a proposed Fiscal Analysis and Appropriations Bill, which will provide that any Ministry that will not account for the monies it shall be given will have its Vote impounded by this House 4262 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES December 6, 2006 using powers that it will be given by the proposed law. Such a Ministry will have to answer for its malpractices before any additional money is given to it. Unless the Executive knows there will be sanctions against it, it will do exactly what it wants, knowing that it will present a report to Parliament ten years later and no action will be taken. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I will not go into the specifics of the Report as contained in the Volume for the year 2000/2001 and 2001/2002. But I will address two areas; one is the area of revenue collection, and I am talking about Kenya Revenue Authority. One area where the Kenya Revenue Authority is losing money is through the diversion of goods which are meant for export into the local market without payment of the necessary taxes. This is an issue that is very well known to the Executive, but I am not convinced that they have taken the adequate measures to stump out this vice. It is obvious that when goods come into the port of Mombasa, there is a requirement for bond which is cancelled after the goods leave this country. But we know that the trucks are dispatched and the people who are supposed to escort these lorries with the documents actually travel two or three days later. I know of some specific cases where documents leave five days later just to be stamped in Mariakani, Mlolongo all the way to the border, and without the actual verification that the goods have actually left the country. The Government is aware of this and I am not convinced that they have done enough to address this issue. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I also know that those people who are bringing in goods through the port of Mombasa can decide on which goods are going to be verified and which ones will not. There is a fee, and this is common knowledge within Customs, that if you pay a fee of Kshs20,000, your container will not be subject to verification, it will not be subjected to the X-ray machine which I hear has been recently introduced. The Government is aware of this, but I am not convinced that any measures have been taken to rectify the situation. There are those people who purport to pay their taxes via cheques, which are later returned. The Customs people keep these cheques and the last things they do is to go court. But with our court system, everybody knows what happens and so nobody takes any notice. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I was recently in Mombasa and I saw a beautiful road that had been constructed. My reaction was that in another two or three years there will be no road because we have allowed overweight vehicles to use those roads. We have the capacity to ensure that the trucks that carry the necessary axle load are allowed into our roads. The Government has the capacity to do that, but they have done nothing. I do not see why they bothered to put weigh bridges away from the port when they could simply put a weigh bridge in the port of Mombasa and ensure that no truck that is overweight leaves the port. This is not hidden to Government, but perhaps because they have given this leeway for some people to get a few bucks. Right now, if you went to Mariakani, there will be over 100 trucks waiting to go on to a weigh bridge, not necessarily to be weighed, but they are waiting for the right officer to come on duty, to pay the Kshs10,000 or Kshs20,000 depending on how much overload they have so that the load is carried. In the meantime, the money that is being used to make those roads will not be in existence in a few years from now. So, these are issues that are known to Government and yet, nothing is being done. So, I am not satisfied, as a Member of this House, that the Government has taken the right measures. The attitude is that, let us go ahead and do what we want to do, nobody will know what is going on, and in any case, it will come to light ten years later. By that time, I am sure, for example, hon. Michuki will be away looking after his goats and he will not be anywhere in the scene. So, by the time this report reaches this House, he will be long gone and I do not think anybody will want to disturb an old man enjoying peace. There are things that are being done deliberately because it is known that by the time this report---"
}