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{
    "id": 491292,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/491292/?format=api",
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    "content": "because in African countries, the so-called collection of fees is left at the whims of the political elites to the extent that the multinationals invite the President, they corrupt that President and tell him, for example: We want to give you royalties of five per cent and we will pay in your foreign bank account so much money. Then you find the country is not moving. This happened in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) whereby by the time Mobutu Sese Seko was dying, he was a dollar billionaire when his country is what it is. Had there been a strong institution of Parliament in the DRC, then Zaire, with serious legislation like the one being advanced by Sen. (Dr.) Zani, one would have seen a situation like the one we see in Qatar. I was shocked early this year when I visited Qatar and I found that they had even air conditioned their stadia to the extent that they have been able to beat the adverse weather conditions, allowing athletes to express their talents freely to the extent that they have even won recognition from the Federation of International Football (FIFA) for purposes of hosting the world cup in 2022. This is because of nothing else but the country is organized, it has a strong institution of Parliament and the leadership does not live in corruption. Madam Temporary Speaker, I want to move to Clause 7 which speaks to the Revenue Sharing Ratio. In Clause 7 (1) (b), the sharing of collective revenue shall be as follows: Amongst others, the Committee has said that we have the Sovereign Wealth Fund which shall be distributed between a future fund and a natural resources fund in the percentage of 60 per cent to the future fund and 40 per cent to the natural resources fund. This is okay, but this Bill is not clear what the future fund and what the natural resources fund will be used for and how different the two funds are. I will tell you the risk of leaving it ambiguous. Upon growing into trillions of dollars in the foreseeable future, we run the risk of it being abused in exactly the same way the National Social Security Services Fund (NSSF) has been abused by politicians over the years in this country. It is, therefore, important that we are clear and as the Senate, we define exactly how this fund is going to be used and how it will be applied. We should lock out the big hand of the African President from this fund. Otherwise this fund will in future be used by people to do presidential or gubernatorial campaigns in the counties. I would also like to comment on part (V) of Clause 8 which establishes the Sharing Authority. This is a very important clause. Madam Temporary Speaker, this is a very important clause. The Benefits Sharing Authority amongst the issues stated there will preempt the ethnic curse that mineral rich countries in Africa have suffered. It will preempt the mineral resource and poor governance curse. If Senators have time to look at the literature we have in our bookshop, they will see that there is a book by Paul Colley called; The Bottom OneBillion Members of this World . Paul Colley argues that owing to the ethnicity curse, the mineral resource curse and the poor governance curse, it does not matter amongst us – who are among the bottom one billion – whether we have these things or not. We will have the minerals in Turkana and because of poor governance, we will start fighting over them. We have The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}