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{
    "id": 316648,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/316648/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 379,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Onyancha",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 126,
        "legal_name": "Charles Onyancha",
        "slug": "charles-onyancha"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is already confirmed that the new generation notes were going to be having better safety features and higher quality at half the price. So, when we start saying that we saved money because of saving 300 jobs, we are not sincere to ourselves because the same Government sold Telkom Kenya Ltd and rendered many people jobless. So, I think we are not facing the facts unless all other pieces were going at much less price at Malta than they were going at the Ruaraka Plant. So the Committee is asking itself: Does this make sense? Does it make sense to pay for anything which is of a cheaper quality at double the price? It does not make sense. Secondly, we invited all the people mentioned in the report to give evidence. On several occasions, some of them lied to the Committee. Some of them could not recollect what happened. Others were contradicting each other and some of them actually were telling outright lies. At the beginning, one of the lies told was that the notes from Malta, why we could not print there, was because we would have a storage problem in Kenya because they would have been brought in one batch in bulk and the CBK does not have that storage capacity in addition to security. This was later proven to be wrong from other evidence we took because the contract from Malta provided for batch deliveries as and when they were required by the bank. Another falsehood was that the sentry at the CBK had disappeared and could not be traced. The Committee managed to get him within three days. He had never disappeared, but there was simply reluctance to get him to come and appear before the Committee. The orders which we are talking about that resulted in the loss of Kshs1.8 billion are orders which were made subsequent to the approval of the tender. The frustrations that Mrs. Mwatela went under the Minister for Finance are all in the evidence in trying to produce the new generation notes. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Auditor-General was detailed by the Committee on making a calculation showing the differential between the higher price locally and the local price of Malta, multiplied by the number of pieces of notes that had already been ordered. It is very simple. Any layman can make that calculation. So, to tell us no loss was incurred is misleading the House. When we go to the issue of Cabinet approval, the Cabinet approved the joint venture. It never approved the usurping of the powers of the Central Bank of ordering for bank notes or placing procurement orders. Turning to De La Rue as a joint venture, our recommendation that it should be looked at and accepted is not because we now accept that we can take the higher price. It is because we feel that it will need a complete overhaul. The new company that is supposed to form a joint venture with the Kenya Government has machinery that is all obsolete. We are of the idea that it is good for a country to have its own printing press; its mint. But in having it, we would expect that it will quote cheaper than anybody overseas because there are no transport costs involved and labour is cheaper in Kenya than elsewhere. So, we do not see any reason why it cannot compete fairly against any foreign competition."
}