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{
    "id": 282892,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/282892/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 452,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Ogindo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 120,
        "legal_name": "Martin Otieno Ogindo",
        "slug": "martin-ogindo"
    },
    "content": "Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, I rise to support the Committee Report on the Budget Policy Statement. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, I want to start by regretting the level of participation in this important subject. It is with a lot of pain that when it comes to voting on this, you will see hon. Members coming in droves and voting without really appreciating the substance of the Report. The same goes even for the Estimates. I want to urge my colleagues to really take this matter seriously, because when it comes to our responsibility in this House, as representatives of the people, money counts most, because we want to see effective and efficient management of resources that can transcend all the way to every corner of this country. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, having said that, the Budget Policy Statement is a broad guideline on how the Government intends to undertake economic development in the country. Our new Constitution imposes serious responsibility on Parliament. Previously, we have been joyriding on the back of Treasury to see to the macro-economic stability of this country. But today the new Constitution has shifted this mandate and Parliament has an equal share of the mandate to steer the macro-economic stability of this country. With that, it becomes imperative for Parliament or the National Assembly as a whole, to improve and strengthen its Budget Office. Today, we have a Budget Office that is headed by a Director. I want to commend the Director for the good job that she has done, but I must point out that she is an overworked person. She sits in the Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC) and serves all the Committees. What was envisaged in this Fiscal Management Act, when we created the Budget Office, was that we wanted to create an office that is capable of assembling staff who have the capacity of matching what is in the Executive side, in all sectors of this economy. It would be appropriate for this Parliament to take urgent measures, now that the new Constitution imposes this responsibility of the Budget making process squarely on Parliament, to upscale the Budget Office, so as to be able to live up to its expectation. I have in mind the need to bring into the Parliamentary Budget Office engineers, agriculturalists and educationists, so that at policy level, the Budget Office is able to interrogate educational policies, agricultural policies and infrastructural policies."
}