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{
    "id": 420846,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/420846/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 246,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Katoo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 199,
        "legal_name": "Judah Katoo Ole-Metito",
        "slug": "judah-ole-metito"
    },
    "content": "to have a database and the public needs to give input on whether that contractor is qualified or whether he has a good history. That is what is happening now in the laptops case. You see, the tender for the laptops has been cancelled. It will go again through another process and it is costing the public money and all this is wastage. That really brings me to my final point on how to cut down on this big public wage bill. I think we need to be very stringent and go where wastage is. A lot of money is being wasted and if we could correct that, we will not be talking of a bloated public wage bill. We need to handle these pending bills and outstanding imprests. We need to cut down on wastage in Government Ministries and departments on issues of stationery. There are some offices where their budget for stationery and hospitality is bigger than that of a single Ministry in the Government. This is the time we are talking of being digital. We have to digitise. Even here in Parliament you see all this paperwork. We are spending a lot of money on it. If we could digitise or take advantage of technology then we will save a lot of money and this is not even a very big institution. So, I am saying that wastage on stationery, hospitality, unnecessary travel, seminars and workshops that add no value to the running of this country are the issues that we need to consider. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, even when we go to the structure of the Government, I think in the morning people talked of commissions. The Constitution says that commissioners should be a minimum of three and a maximum of nine people. We went for the maximum because of the mistrust we had at that time because of the National Accord. So, we need to go to the minimum of three. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, on the issue of county governments, we must have devolution but we need to have lean and efficient county governments. I was going to propose that in the county governments we do not need to have a cabinet of the governor with all those people with offices. You just need to have a governor and the Director of Education, Director of Finance and so on without having what they call the Executive Committee. They are now calling themselves Ministers. You just need to have directors heading those departments. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, it is very true that some people have been talking of having the gender rule in elective positions. We need to have the gender rule on appointed offices. The issue of nominated leaders all the way from National Assembly, Senate to the county assemblies needs to be done away with. This way we shall cut down the wage bill, although we have some nominated Members representing special interest groups. I will support my colleague here, hon. Mwaura who is representing special interests. In my county, there are 25 elected members of the county assembly but there are 18 nominated ones. Surely, what are we saying? I think this is the time to say that as per the structures in the current Constitution, we cannot implement them. It is not possible economically. I beg to support, hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker."
}