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{
    "id": 295590,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/295590/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 394,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Kimunya",
    "speaker_title": "The Minister for Transport",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 174,
        "legal_name": "Amos Muhinga Kimunya",
        "slug": "amos-kimunya"
    },
    "content": " Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to clarify one or two things. The first one is that, the time we are seeking for to sit tomorrow is not to discuss the Vote on Account in the morning but to complete the discussion on the Public Financial Management Bill which has a bearing including on how we then sort out the budgeting cycles. It will be very desirous of us, once we have done that, because we will help even in terms of moving forward in the Budget process. The second thing is obviously that we have cut short our programme for today and moved the Public Service Commission and the Teachers Service Commission bills to tomorrow morning or afternoon. Hon. Members are also desirous and have come to us and said that they also want to have a break. The Committee on Budget also wants to call the various stakeholders to discuss the estimates and the Budget. I think it is an issue that we need to recognize. We are in between a transition. We have the tradition through which we have always passed the budgetary process and before an Appropriation Bill is introduced in the House, hon. Members will recall that we have the individual Votes being discussed by this House and hon. Members select which Votes the House needs to interrogate and the Ministers come and appear before the House. They interrogate those and after that, then we are given the authority as the Government to introduce into the House the Appropriation Bill. The Constitution anticipated that the process of the finalization of the Appropriation Bill may well pass beyond the 30th June which means come 1st July, the whole Government and all institutions including Parliament would have to close down if there is no money to finance expenditure beyond 1st July. In all probability between now and 30th June, there is no way you are going to have an Appropriation Bill. So we would then need to make sure that we have a mechanism which is what was authorized within the Constitution to access a Vote on Account which gives a temporary access to funding before this House has passed the Appropriation Bill. Whether we sit tomorrow morning or not, I can almost guarantee you that even the time you require to publish the Bill, have it mature and debated, 30th June will find us without that Bill. But tomorrow morning what we need is the time to clear the Committee Stage on the Public Financial Management Bill which will also help us in unlocking the process of budgeting under the new constitutional dispensation. I think once we sort out the morning session, then when we come to the afternoon on the Vote on Account, we will be guided by the ruling by the Speaker and also the debate that we will be having here whether we will have the Vote on Account tomorrow or not. But that will be in the afternoon and not in the morning."
}