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{
    "id": 510366,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/510366/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 171,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Bunyasi",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2511,
        "legal_name": "John Sakwa Bunyasi",
        "slug": "john-sakwa-bunyasi"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I rise to support this extremely important Motion that is before the House. This House has a major role to play in resource allocation and oversight of resource use. That is a function that was enhanced by the Constitution. The House plays this role through PAC; of course, it then comes before the Floor. As you all know, the House takes keen interest in the Budget and Appropriations Committee because it determines which way we are going to move. At the same time, I appeal to the House that we should take equally intense and passionate role in ensuring that the resources are, indeed, used as had been programmed and approved by the House. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, if we want to achieve the outcomes that we are seeking--- When we pass the estimates meant to finance priority programmes and projects to achieve certain levels of growth, we have to be sure that the funds are used well in those projects. They must be used in a manner that is consistent with the laws that govern the use of public funds. Therefore, it is an enviable role that the House has been given by the Constitution and it is extremely important. Similarly, the role of oversight is sometimes painful. It is not always pleasant. It is not a role that you can play with in terms of the divisions that we see in the House; in terms of one side of the House or the other; majority or minority. If you are a person who cares about this country, or the president for example, who wants to achieve a certain mandate in five years or so, then you must be concerned about what happens in the use of funds. If you do not, then you are undermining the president you might be seeking to support and the very constitutional provisions that we swore to uphold. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, this has been a very onerous task, indeed. It has taken extremely long hours. I am glad that it has seen the light of the day, contrary to earlier views that the Committee was not working. The work of the PAC requires extreme due diligence and you cannot report work in progress. You have to get to the end to be able to report. To do this work effectively, the Kenya National Audit Office (KENAO) must be strengthened. This cannot be overstated. I hope that our colleagues in the Budget and Appropriations Committee and the Finance, Planning and Trade Committee and, indeed, the whole House will provide resources to KENAO effectively. The Kenya National Audit Office will be looking at 47 counties in addition to its actual roles. This is an extremely important function which cannot be discharged unless KENAO is sufficiently strengthened. The idea of using the old style of; if they ask for a billion, you give them half a billion, does not work well with KENAO. In fact, even at the best of circumstances it still needs to outsource its functions. Therefore, they need to be adequately funded. We would have done even a better job if KENAO had been adequately given resources. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, one thing that I found completely unacceptable and was bordering on callousness; is the non-responsiveness of Accounting Officers. The responses that were given to queries; management letters, were given only a few weeks or few months before appearing before the PAC. Some appropriate sanctions must be found for officers who The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}