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"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, no action has been taken with regard to that project up to today. Indeed, on the contrary, some of us can now begin to think why no action has been taken. Those people that this country believed were responsible for plundering that project are today the ones who are in bed with this Government. We cannot get anywhere if that is the way this Government is going to work. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir allow me to give another example, this time round in the Office of the President. I will mention each Ministry. With regard to relief food, the Controller and Auditor-General says that £152 million, which is over Kshs1 billion was spent to buy food for drought victims in 1998/1999 Financial Year. That money could not be accounted for because there were no documents provided to the Controller and Auditor-General. He recommends that action must be taken against the officers who were responsible at that time. Unfortunately, even before that department was transformed into a Ministry a couple of years ago when hon. Michuki was in charge, the same misuse of relief food has been continuing. The same people who have been accused in the past are the same ones who still serve in the current Government. We need action because the recommendation in this Report is very clear. It states which officer was responsible at that time. There is no point, therefore, of accusing us all the time that it is KANU which stole from Kenyans. The KANU which stole from Kenyans is defined in this Report. We want this Government to take action so that this House is given credence. There is no need of the PAC writing Reports if action cannot be taken. If action is not going to be taken, then we can be excused for believing that this regime shares the same views and aspirations with 4064 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES November 29, 2006 these corrupt fellows. That is exactly why action is not being taken. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, all the recommendations are very interesting. Some of the recommendations say: \"Those public officers who have been involved in this plunder should not be hired again in public service\". Quite a number of the officers who have been blacklisted here have since been hired by the same regime. It says that those public officers should be surcharged, as per the recommendations, and none of them has been surcharged. Investigations have been called for but there is nothing happening. So, we have a situation where we, unfortunately, have to continue with the misuse of public resources and we have seen it in the recent by-elections and in the referendum and today in the accounts that are being done for this year. The same misuse and plunder of public resources is going on and the same institutions that would have been responsible for accountability continue to be undermined. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, let me come to procurement. One major avenue through which this country loses a lot of money is in procurement and the same illegalities which have been used are the same ones which we have just addressed through the Public Procurement Act, unfortunately, which is yet to be fully operational. However, it is interesting to note that in this document we have recommended specific companies to be blacklisted. Before the Financial Year 1996/1997 and all the previous years, there are a number of contractors who have been recommended for blacklisting by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) but those contractors continue to do business with this Government even today. I am, therefore, asking from the Floor of this House: How do you go anywhere if you allow the same blacklisted people who have ripped off billions of shillings from public coffers to continue? Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, secondly, the same reasons are given like: No documentation, delays by donors in sending vouchers, variations by Ministry of Public Works and then we are told that the Attorney-General is not doing his job. If you sit in the PAC, you really get bored going through this document because the same reasons are given but no actions are being taken. We expected this regime, which had expressed their commitment to fighting corruption endless number of times to take action on this Report and this is a challenge to them. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to look at the Ministry of Finance. One of the areas in which the Ministry of Finance has been accused of, even in this Report, is the discretionary waiver of taxes."
}