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{
    "id": 522687,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/522687/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 95,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Mulu",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1955,
        "legal_name": "Benson Makali Mulu",
        "slug": "benson-makali-mulu"
    },
    "content": "process, then you will be held responsible as an individual. I think that is very important to me. The other thing which is very important is in Clause 9. It says there will be an Authority; this procurement Authority will be required by this law to co-operate with State and non-State actors on how to improve procurement. Many times in the past, public officers did not listen to private officers because they got to their offices and procured without any consultation. Right now the Bill requires that if you are a public officer and you are involved in procurement, you will ensure that you also consult non- State actors. This will ensure that the process is actually improved. I think this is very important because by doing so, we will be likely to ensure that we seal the loopholes which result in corruption. The other thing is Clause 67 (1), which is very important for corruption reduction. This Clause talks about having procurement records kept for at least six years. What this Bill says is that if you procure supplies, be it goods, services or works, you will be required to make sure that records, or the documentation relating to that procurement, are kept for at least six good years. This is very important as it will allow auditors to be able to go through the process, look at the documentation and confirm that the process was overboard. So, this clause is going to help this country in terms of ensuring that corruption, which is really a big problem in this country is reduced. When you look at Clause 60(4), it talks about tender security, which has been a thorny issue in this country. It has been a reality that the poor, the middle class and the low income earners cannot access procurement contracts. This clause provides for the disadvantaged groups, what we call “the maginalised groups”, namely the youth, women and disabled; they will not be required to offer tender security. What this Bill proposes is that you will be required to sign the tender securing declaration form. To me, this is very important because through this Bill we will see the majority of our disadvantaged groups such as women, youth and the disabled bid for supply of goods and services like anybody else. If they get the chance to win the tender, then they will be able to supply goods and be paid; this will be unlike the situation in the past when you had to provide tender security; if you were not able to provide a tender security, then you could not get any contract. Therefore, I think this law is long overdue. That is why I really support the idea of having this law in place; most of the issues which we have been talking about all along are going to be sorted out. We are just about to embark on next year’s Budget. That is the national and county governments budgets. Any time you look at the absorption rates of the Budget, every year we are being told that we were not able to use 70 per cent of the Budget. The other day we had a mid-term review and we were informed that we had achieved 50 per cent absorption in six months in Recurrent Expenditure. On the other hand, in Development Expenditure we are doing very badly; any time you ask a question as to why we are not able to use funds allocated for development activities in this country, one of the reasons and a major contributing factor to this is the fact that the procurement process has been causing long delays. So, with this law, I see a situation where we will be able to do timely procurement. As a result of that we will be able to absorp the budgets. The end result will be a situation where we will grow our economy and as a result we will have fair 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."
}