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{
    "id": 508221,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/508221/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 328,
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "as we begin to debate it. In the beginning, we have the short Title and the preliminaries. Then we have the establishment of the Benefits Sharing Authority (BSA). This is, probably, one of the strengths of this Bill because we give this BSA the mandate to control this sector. We have made it a very powerful authority in terms of the personalities who will be there. There will be a chairperson who will be nominated by the President, but vetted by the Senate. We have given high educational qualifications. We expect that each of those people in that Board should have a university degree. We have also included sectoral interests from the manufacturing firms so that they can be on board. We have also tried to make that Board bottom heavy so that we have members of communities who will have a say. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, part three tackles the whole issue of the management of the BSA. It gives the details about that. It also tackles the collection of the royalties and fees that I will talk about briefly and expound on. The county benefits agreements that will be very critical in preparing and setting the pace for the collection of the monies. Then, we have a section that deals with the financial and miscellaneous provisions. We felt that if we have all these coming together, so that we do it in a very organized way, then we would be creating order in a sector that operates in very different and diverse space. This is to ensure that they all operate within one space. In the first part we have the various definitions. We have tried to put into place the key definitions that are critical in explaining this Bill. In Part 3, there is definition of the natural resources that are included in this particular Bill. They are mentioned there. Again, because of time, I will not mention them. However, we have made a provision in Part 2, that there is a sense in which other natural resources not specified in this section can also be included. We are cognizant of the fact that Article 260 of the Constitution also gives a summary of the natural resources. However, through our sectoral engagement with members of these sectors, we know that the list can never be exhaustive. In future, we might end up having other new natural resources that have not been discovered hence we want to open it up. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, Part 2 is the establishment of the BSA. We will have a corporate body and operate in all matters corporate as sustained by the law. Some of the important functions will be to coordinate the preparation of benefit sharing agreements between local communities and affected organizations, identify counties that are required to enter into a benefit sharing agreement for the commercial exploitation of natural resources. It will also conduct research regarding the exploitation and development of natural resources. It will also deal with determining appeals arising from conflict regarding the preparation and implementation of the county benefits agreements. Looking through the functions, and I have just mentioned a few, we put this BSA in charge of ensuring that the whole sector of natural resources is well coordinated and organized in a systematic manner. In Clause 3 we are saying that it shall in its performance under the functions take into cognizance existing laws. These are the ones I had mentioned earlier. For example, if we have a Forests Act or a Water Act that has already put charges and stipulations that are already being paid, those ones need to be adhered to. 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."
}