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{
    "id": 517478,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/517478/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 166,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Speaker",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "debate this matter. For your information, even hon. John Mbadi was on a point of order. So, it is not possible for all the 18 of you to claim that you want him to sit down so that you can also raise your points of order, which are just points of argument. I am sure all of you know the provisions of Article 122 of the Constitution. Hon. Peter Kaluma appears to be surprised. That Article says that the Speaker has no vote. So, I cannot sit and claim to want to have a vote today. I will not vote and I cannot vote. However, the truth must be told. If the House feels strongly about any proposals in a Report, the Members are at liberty to reject or even amend it. However, it is also fair at this point for me to say that we must be faithful to the Constitution. Article 221 is on budget estimates and annual Appropriations Bill. Hon. John Mbadi strenuously tried to avoid the fact that it starts with Article 221(1) which provides that: “At least two months before the end of each financial year, the Cabinet Secretary responsible for finance shall submit to the National Assembly estimates of the revenue and expenditure of the national government for the next financial year to be tabled in the National Assembly.” So, do we have financial estimates? Are these financial estimates? For those of you who may wish to understand what the BPS is, it is fair to familiarise yourselves with the Public Finance Management (PFM) Act so as to know what it is. Even then, the BPS is not the financial estimates of expenditure. Subsection (2) provides that: “The estimates mentioned in clause (1) shall— (a) include estimates of expenditure from the Equalisation Fund; and (b) be in the form, and according to the procedure, prescribed by an Act of Parliament.” This is the same Act of Parliament I was referring you to. It is when considering those estimates that the committee of the House, which is the Budget and Appropriations Committee, is required, in clauses (4) and (5), to seek public representations. It says that: “(4) Before the National Assembly considers the estimates of revenue and expenditure, a committee of the Assembly shall discuss and review the estimates and make recommendations to the Assembly. (5) In discussing and reviewing the estimates, the committee shall seek representations from the public and the recommendations shall be taken into account when the committee makes its recommendations to the National Assembly.” Those recommendations cannot possibly be made in a Report that is discussing the BPS. Hon. Mbadi, however far we want to stretch our imaginations, we must also be faithful to the process."
}