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{
    "id": 250085,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/250085/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 260,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Kimunya",
    "speaker_title": "The Minister for Finance",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 174,
        "legal_name": "Amos Muhinga Kimunya",
        "slug": "amos-kimunya"
    },
    "content": " Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, let me start by thanking hon. Members who have contributed, for their comments and contributions, which I will confirm we take very seriously. Even if we do not act on them between now and the time we leave this House, they will be taken into account in future. May I also confirm to this House that the Treasury did not sit unilaterally and re-allocate the monies. All the Accounting Officers in the various Ministries participated in bringing in the figures they thought their Ministry would not be spending between now and June, 2006. Any reflections in reductions have the full concurrence of all the people concerned. I would also like to explain, and I went into that in depth both when moving the Motion and now, that the reduction 960 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES May 4, 2006 you see especially within the Development Expenditure, where donors are involved, is in the realisation that if those funds are not coming, there is no point in carrying that expenditure in our books because we are not eventually spending it. We have to reflect the reality. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the only other thing I would like to mention is that there is a misconception in terms of delays in disbursement of funds. When Parliament votes money, it gives us the authority to spend. We need to go out there and ask people to pay their taxes. We need to raise that money and go through the whole rigmarole of all the procedures before the money can be spent. When hon. Members see that there is a disconnect between voting the money and the actual disbursement, it is because of that situation. I take the point in terms of the level of details that this House requires and we will be looking into that. However, I would like to urge hon. Members to also visit the Treasury's website where we have posted the details of all the various accounts heads and familiarise themselves in terms of what an account head constitutes, for example, \"other operating and contingency expenses\". We will try to be as simple as possible in future for the benefit of hon. Members. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I also welcome hon. Members, views especially Mr. Okemo's suggestion. That is the direction the Government is going in terms of putting more emphasis on development and moving away from Recurrent Expenditure. That is the future direction and how we are going to save this country. We will, therefore, be seeking the support of hon. Members in that direction. With those few remarks, I beg to move."
}