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"id": 232892,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Omingo",
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"speaker": {
"id": 180,
"legal_name": "James Omingo Magara",
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"content": "The Judiciary, the highest institution in the land that is supposed to uphold justice, had an excess vote of K£333,000. The then Ministry for Rural Development had an excess vote of more than K£59,000. The former Ministry of Research and Technology over-spent by an excess of K£132,000. Some Ministries used to be created for the purpose of conveniently rewarding some people and then disbanding them. The then Ministry of Lands and Settlement over-spent by K£2,131,048. What we are saying is that the facts must be laid bare for now and posterity. I do not care how long it takes. We are talking about things that happened in 1998. History will judge us very harshly. Those who are responsible for these irregularities are still serving in the current regime. For your information, and with due respect, some of them have served in all the three regimes, and gladly so. That was on Recurrent Expenditure. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, on Development Expenditure, it is interesting to note that the Attorney-General's Chambers, which is the custodian of the law of the land, incurred an excess vote of K£171,319. The chief legal advisor to the Government broke the law. Again, the former Ministry of Rural Development, which was conveniently created to reward certain people, over-spent by K£4.9 million. The Ministry had not been provided for in the Budget because it did not exist when the Budget was prepared. It was subsequently created through a road side declaration and given some money. The Committee noted that the Treasury can only discipline an Accounting Officer but it could not take action against Permanent Secretaries (PS), because it is not their appointing authority. Permanent Secretaries are appointed by the President. Therefore, there is no way the Treasury can effectively supervise somebody whose appointing authority is different. The current PS, Treasury, Mr. Kinyua, cannot generally or responsibly discipline another PS in another Ministry although he is supposed to be the chief Accounting Officer of the Government. The Committee recommends that the Treasury should instill strict discipline and take stern action against Accounting Officers who incur excess expenditure without the authority of Parliament. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, turning to the issue of public debt, the current position is terrible to listen to. At that time, the public debt, both domestic and external, stood at 53 per cent of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP). To our amazement, as we speak, the public debt portfolio stands in excess of Kshs730 billion. Effectively, about 72 per cent of our GDP goes into servicing debts. That means, every Kenyan, including a child who is born today, bears a public debt burden of more than Kshs32,500. Most of this country's public debts were incurred improperly and applied irregularly. That was the scenario then. Today, we incur public debt through scandals such as Anglo Leasing. That is the root cause of the public debt problem in this country. It was inherited from the previous regime and perpetuated by the current regime. Kenya now spends more than Kshs112 billion to service public 3992 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES November 28, 2006 debt. Suspecting that 90 per cent of our public debt is not genuine, which I know it is not, we could use the amount of money represented by that percentage to double the salaries of our teachers, recall all our doctors from Botswana and South Africa to treat our people at Kenyatta National Hospital, and improve our infrastructure in a year. We inherited a disease, cancerous as it were, and we refused to chop the finger which was cancerous. Today, from Kshs630 billion when the NARC Government took over in December, 2002, the public debt is now apparently Kshs750 billion. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Committee was gravely concerned that Government expenditure on public debt was higher than the expenditure on other services. Then you say that we want to develop. How do you develop when 70 per cent of your Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is going to service public debt? And this is not a debt which was incurred for service which was delivered! This is a debt which was incurred improperly and applied irregularly. When we take a simple scenario of a deal that is similar to the Anglo Leasing scandal, and I want hon. Members to understand what I mean, I have once said on the Floor of the House that fraudulent debts like this are incurred. For example, if I want to go and buy a Toyota car from Toyota Kenya on lease hire or hire purchase, what it means is that I will pay a deposit and get the services of my car to enjoy driving my children to school or going shopping. As I continue paying the monthly lease rental, at the end of 15 years, the ownership of the car on paper reverts to me. This means that, as soon as you pay the deposit, you are supposed to start enjoying the services of an asset which you have acquired. A good example is the Forensic Science Laboratory in which we paid a deposit and we continued paying the instalments for an asset which was in a foreign land and not here. These are the kinds of debts we are paying as public debts. This is a vice that must be stopped! A public debts register needs to be opened for Kenyans to know who borrowed, for what purpose and what use was that money put to. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, pending bills was another cancerous thing. I remember that when hon. Raila was the Minister for Roads and Public Works, he actually blacklisted some contractors because of being \"cowboy\" contractors. Indeed, that was as a result of an audit which was done by a former hon. Member, Eng. Kiptoon. Later, the \"cowboy\" contractors became \"angel\" contractors and their pending bills continued being paid. Today, there is evidence that the contractors have continued being paid the pending bills which were suspended. The former Minister for Finance, Mr. Mwiraria, said:- \"We are not going to pay the pending bills until the Finalization Committee has finalized--- \" At the end of the day, behind the pending bills, there was somebody's take in there and they had to service that particular bill. The Committee noted that:- \"Pending bills have been a thorny problem affecting several Ministries every year. The Committee expressed concern that bills incurred by various Ministries were carried forward to 1999/2000 as follows---\" Once again, State House appeared in that list. I wish I could change this. State House had pending bills amounting to K£4.2 million. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs had pending bills amounting to K£2.7 million and the Ministry of Home Affairs, Heritage and Sports amounting to K£8.3 million. The Department of Defence, because of their security nature, had pending bills amounting to K£10.9 million. These pending bills which are of a security nature are the most notorious! This figure of K£10.9 million, if you multiply it by Kshs20, it comes to over Kshs200 million. This figure was spent courtesy of \"security purchases\". The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development had pending bills amounting to K£1.8 million, the Ministry of Transport and Communications had pending bills amounting to K£1.2 million and the Ministry of Trade and Industry, K£9.2 million. Yet again, the Office of the Attorney-General had pending bills worth K£1.7 million. That is about Kshs34 million. November 28, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 3993 The Report goes on to say that:- \"The Committee recommended that the Accounting Officers must always ensure that pending bills must be paid within the year they have been incurred. They must also ensure that Ministries and departments operate within the voted provision.\" Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, let me now turn to the issue of procurement of Y2K- compliant computers. You would remember that we were crossing over from year 2000 to 2001 and there was this scare that we need to buy computers that are not going to \"close their eyes\" come the following year, 2001. That is where the intelligent boys in the Civil Service actually made a kill. The Committee noted with grave concern that K£2 million was issued by the Ministry of Finance to pay for 399 computers, which were of low quality than the Ministry had specified. These computers were bought and certified by technical people when they were of a different quality than the one which was specified. No action was taken against Messrs. Olivetti Equatorial Ltd, who supplied the sub-standard items. If you ask me today, I am sure that they are still serving the Government. Instead, the Ministry received the computers knowing that they were faulty and distributed them to the other Ministries without any inspection to ensure that they met the required specifications. The full payment for the computers was also made in advance. Even if you wanted to return them, they would still have the money. If you take the sham computers back, they would still sit on your money because behind that company, there was a tap opened by a \"big boy\" from the Government, who must have enjoyed that loot. That was K£2 million which is equivalent to Kshs40 million for 399 computers! Therefore, each computer must have cost about Kshs100,000. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Committee was abhorred by the manner in which the Ministry purchased the computers in total disregard of the financial regulations and procurement procedures. It is unfortunate that this is the Ministry with the mandate to ensure that all Ministries and departments adhere to the financial regulations. What a shame! And they are the same people who are now in those Ministries there, some people are stealing here while they are remote-controlling Government operations from their gardens. They are basking in the glory of our stolen money at the expense of our children. I once said, and I want to repeat here, that when you steal money which was meant for Kenyatta National Hospital and you carry that money home to your wife and children, basically, what you are saying is that you are serving your children with blood money! That is a shame! Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Report says:- \"The Committee strongly recommended that Accounting Officers must liaise with the Attorney-General---\" The Attorney-General who is flouting the rules--- Once again, the Ministry is being asked to liaise with the Chief Government Legal Advisor, who is, himself, misadvising the Government and spending beyond the stipulated expenditure guidelines. \"---and the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC) with a view to ensuring that both the supplier and officers who received and distributed the computers face the full force of the law\". I wonder what is happening. I know that there are recommendations which had been made against particular companies. The Committee recommended that those companies be blacklisted from supplying goods and services to the Government, but today, they are still supplying the Government against the Committee's recommendation of blacklisting them. The construction of customs offices is another scam. We spent slightly in excess of Kshs500 million for projects in Loitoktok and Shimoni. Even if those projects were bombed today, the parent Ministry would not feel anything because they are valueless. The Committee noted with grave concern that the Ministry of Finance constructed customs offices, a police station and staff houses at Loitoktok border post. This area has no tarmac road or water. There was no need for such 3994 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES November 28, 2006 a facility. We ended up spending Kshs531 million and there is a pending bill which the Government is still paying to date of Kshs631 million. The total cost of that project is Kshs1.1 billion. The revenue from that border post, if it was to be calculated per month, is only Kshs2,500. If we were to collect in terms of paying back what was spent on that project, it will take generations and centuries to recover the money. That is the shame we are being put in by this Government of recycling the same people to do the same thing. I said God help me when the time comes to be able to associate with people who do not serve blood on top of their tables for their children and wives."
}