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{
    "id": 515602,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/515602/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 180,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Eng.) Gumbo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 24,
        "legal_name": "Nicholas Gumbo",
        "slug": "nicholas-gumbo"
    },
    "content": "As we go forward, let debates like the one we had yesterday inform the need for us to develop structures. We have had the provisions and it is very clear what it is required in a Budget Policy Statement. This is not something that we are doing for the first time. We enacted the Public Finance Management (PFM) Act, 2012. Now, Clause 25 of that Act is very clear that we need a Budget Policy Statement. So, when we delve into minute items of things that are operational in nature we will be deviating from the main thing. This is not just my creation. The provisions of Clause 25(3) of the PFM Act state clearly that in preparing the Budget Policy Statement, the national Treasury shall set out the broad strategic priorities and policy goals that will guide the national Government and the county governments in preparing their Budget. Hon.Temporary Deputy Speaker, we are talking about broad policy goals which you have to look at because there are two sides to this equation. You want to have these programmes that you want to set budget for. How do you finance them? You have to look at the matrix and your revenue. You will have, in essence, two sets of matrices. You will have to look at the supply side which is basically the revenue and the demand side which consists of the expenses. We got into that situation because -with due respect to the Budget and Appropriations Committee - it became too labyrinthine. We are having issues that ought to appear as detail items in the Budget. What we needed are just broad policy outlines. We need to adhere to that principle where we look at the Budget Policy Statement as a policy of supply and demand and we do not delve into the details which will come out in the printed estimates. Some of the items that I saw here, with all due respect, ought to come in the printed estimates and that way it will not clog this. What we needed to do is to show where we are coming from. Yes, we have heard arguments and people have told us that they went, for example, to Isiolo and they found a bridge. I can tell you even if you go to Ruaraka where the hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker comes from, you will find a gap that probably you will not fill this year. That is why as we enumerate the gaps we do not just enumerate the gaps, but we also set priorities because if each one of us was told to come up with gaps that need to be filled as we were being told today, we will clog the Budget and we will move nowhere. These are public funds. When you come and say that we identify a need somewhere and yet, honestly speaking, the principle of public finance calls for transparency and openness, indeed, if that need was identified why can you not have an annexure showing clearly that we went to Mandera and this is what we found? Why do you encapsulate it in some sort of secrecy? When things appear to be encapsulated in secrecy, then people start to question and sometimes it may not even be in bad faith; it may just be that this was an omission. However, this lacuna can be avoided if we stick to what the Budget Policy Statement really is. I believe it is very clear, especially looking at Clause 25(3) and (4) which state what should be in this. Perhaps, arising out of the debate that we had, I would not even want to call it a stalemate because it was a good engagement that gave us the opportunity to engage with the Budget and Appropriations Committee. My sister is here. Please, let her not see like we are trying to undermine her. Far from it, I have been in this House and I realise the value of Committees."
}