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{
    "id": 518059,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/518059/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 397,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Sakaja",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13131,
        "legal_name": "Johnson Arthur Sakaja",
        "slug": "johnson-arthur-sakaja"
    },
    "content": "Thank you very much, hon. Deputy Speaker. This is the culmination of a very long process. The Bill was first published in 2013 and it is now close to two years since then. It has been a long journey with a lot of hurdles especially when the Bill went to the Senate. I have heard the reservations and the comments from the Members. I also had reservations on some of the amendments by the Senate especially on broadening the definition of “disadvantaged groups”. I would have wished that in the parliamentary spirit, when a Private Member’s Bill goes to the House, it is prudent to invite that Member to go and explain what he was thinking. I was not invited by the Committee on Finance, Commerce and Budget of the Senate. I just found the amendments. I am sure if we had interacted, we would have made more robust amendments to this Bill. However, as a comfort to the Members, the regulations that currently exist are very specific as to which groups we are talking about. The regulations are specific that we are talking about youth, women and people with disability. That takes care of that fear. Secondly, I would like to assure Members that there is a new procurement law that is coming. I have already presented the same amendments as had been passed by the National Assembly before they went to the Senate to the Committee on Finance, Planning and Trade, where I sit and to the legal team. These amendments will be part of the Bill that we are passing. However, it was important for us to finish this process for two reasons. First, it is a process that has taken time and investment to get to where it is. It is always good to finish. People will not remember how you start, but they remember how you finished. Second, even in the intervening period, these three months between now and May, it will make a world of difference for these young people, women and people with disability who are struggling to do business within the counties, parastatals, public schools, universities and all public entities including the national Government. It will also give us time for three months to start receiving the reports of monitoring that will be sent to the Public Procurement Oversight Authority (PPOA) to come to Parliament through the Committee on Equal Opportunities, for us to start questioning our governors, Cabinet Secretaries and parastatal heads on why they are not giving business to young people. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}