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"content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Statement by the Minister sounded like a Paper prepared for a seminar, but not a clear explanation on accountability to the National Assembly on the part of the Government. According to the Minister, only two out of 14 revenue accounts were certified. According to my information, three out of the 14 revenue accounts were certified. So, I have added him one account that was also certified. These are the Mining Account, the Profits and Dividends Account, and the Fines and Penalties Account; which are the smallest revenue accounts. All the other major revenue accounts such as the Taxes on Income Account, the VAT Account, the Corporation Tax, et cetera, were only qualified. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, in accounting language, “qualified” means they were not certified. When the Minister says that the accounts were qualified in the following year, it may mislead one to think that everything was perfect. It means that all the 14 accounts did not meet the threshold of auditing standards. Revenue is collected and banked in the Exchequer Account. The Constitution is very clear under Article 206, which states that there is established the Consolidated Fund into which shall be paid all money raised or received by or on behalf of the national Government. This actually has been uplifted from the other Constitution that we did away with in August, 2010. So, it is just a law that has been in place all this time. Once the money is banked, that is what the Controller and Auditor-General is given and that is what should be reported to this House. Could the Minister now address the following three pertinent issues? First, could the Minister tell this House why, for example, taxes on income - and I want to be very particular, Pay-As-You-Earn--- According to the Exchequer Account, what was given to the Controller and Auditor-General for 2007/2008 was Kshs81.6 billion. To Parliament you reported Kshs85.9 billion. That is over-reporting by Kshs4.3 billion. On taxes on corporations, to the Controller and Auditor-General you reported Kshs86 billion, but to Parliament you reported Kshs79 billion. It is now the opposite. That is under-declaring to Parliament of Kshs7 billion. I could go on and on, but the most interesting one is net domestic borrowing. You reported to the Controller and Auditor- General that for the year 2007/2008 you collected zero. This is very straightforward. On this one you do not need any book reconciliation because it is the CBK borrowing. So, if you are telling the Controller and Auditor-General that you collected zero and yet you come to Parliament and report that you borrowed Kshs13.8 billion then the question is, if you borrowed that money, where did you bank it such that the Controller and Auditor- General could not find it in the Exchequer Account? Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, finally, I want to take the Minister to task for saying that the reason why there is a difference between the figures given to the Controller and Auditor-General who is now the Auditor-General and what was given to Parliament is because the figures given to Parliament were based on unaudited revenue returns. Could the Minister tell us why these figures were based on unaudited revenue returns and yet he reported to Parliament in June, 2009 and the audit was conducted between September, 2008 and May, 2009? The audit report was actually out by May, 2009 and he reported to Parliament in June, 2009. Why did he then base it on unaudited accounts? Does it really make sense? So, this is a very big issue and the Minister should not treat it casually as if that this is just mere book entry. The Controller and Auditor-General is telling this Parliament--- Remember that this Parliament has employed the Controller and Auditor- General to be auditing on its behalf and be reporting to Parliament. The Controller and Auditor-General is telling us: “Parliament, I have done my work. I cannot certify these accounts because they do not make sense to me. There is a total sum of Kshs489 billion for the 2007/2008 Financial Year that I cannot give my opinion on.” I think this House deserves clear reasons as to why the Controller and Auditor- General found it difficult to certify our accounts; why the figures in the Exchequer account where we should keep all our money are different from what the Minister has given us on the Floor of the House. Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir."
}