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{
    "id": 420845,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/420845/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 245,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Katoo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 199,
        "legal_name": "Judah Katoo Ole-Metito",
        "slug": "judah-ole-metito"
    },
    "content": "Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, on the issue of outstanding imprest; I think this is contributing to wastage in Government. As at 30th June, 2009, according to the Reports, in Government Ministries and departments, we had Kshs3.34 billion as outstanding imprest. That is really wastage. If you look at the Ministries that have been topping in that category, it is the Ministry of Public Health and Medical Services that time. That is why we are having a lot of outcry in the health sector. That is even why we are saying, maybe, in devolution; if we devolve this outstanding imprest to counties, it will go up. I think the medics have got a point when they say that imprest should not devolve to that level. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, the other key elements that have been highlighted in the Reports are three categories of institutions that have been underperforming. One is the Criminal Investigation Department (CID). They take too long to investigate cases and even if they do it, their investigation cannot sustain prosecutions. This has been making the accused, once they are acquitted, to go back and sue the Government for unlawful detention and also malicious prosecution. This has made the Government to pay huge compensations to these people. This has also caused wastage. With the reforms by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), we hope this will be corrected. The other office that has been highlighted as underperforming is the Attorney- General’s Office. This is the office that is supposed to be in court on behalf of Government Ministries and departments, but they rarely win cases, according to the Public Accounts Committee Reports. Actually, the worst of it is that they do not inform Ministries of the judgments that have been entered against them. Ministries and departments come to know about that after a very long time and by that time a lot of interest has accrued on these claims. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, the Office of the President and especially the Provincial Administration and Internal Security and also the Medical Services Ministry have caused a lot of wastage. Public funds are going to be used for unnecessary expenditure. These are the places that we are saying we need to put the accounting officer and the other staff under contracts so that each one of them is paid according to how they deliver. The other category on underperformance is contractors. These contractors, especially those in the Ministry of Roads do very poor work. There is poor workmanship. There is a lot of slow progress on the work done and this has been attributed to inefficiency, breakdown of equipment, inadequate equipment and poor planning. All this is turning out to eat into public funds and it is also contributing to wastage of public money. I will agree with the Committee where they have recommended that such contractors need to be blacklisted. I am very happy with the Report of the Committee where they have gone further to say that we need to have a database of all the contractors. This will be open to the public and every time a road is advertised or any Government contract is advertised, any contractor who applies will be vetted by the public. We need The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}