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{
    "id": 522745,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/522745/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 153,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Ochieng",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2955,
        "legal_name": "David Ouma Ochieng'",
        "slug": "david-ouma-ochieng"
    },
    "content": "Public assets are bought today and disposed the following day and you just do it for a song. I will, therefore, start my contribution from the back. I will first talk to the issue of asset disposal which is a very important matter. Sometime back before I came to Parliament, there was a policy that Ministers must only be driven in Volkswagen Passat cars and we bought very many of them. Nowadays, you do not see Cabinet Secretaries or Principal Secretaries driving in them. You hardly even see directors driving in them and we do not know where they are. When you ask, you will be told that some of them have already been disposed of or sold to private persons. This is a scandal for a country, that we buy things at very expensive prices and we throw them back into the market and sell them cheaply. We dispose of in thousands of Kenya Shillings things we buy in billions of Kenya shillings. This is an area where I thought this Bill needed to have given more serious treatment. It is just talking about three or four clauses and we are leaving it all to the Cabinet Secretary and a procurement board. We are not regulating how we are going to dispose our assets in a manner that disciplines that area and ensures that we sell Government property at market price. We need to give every Kenyan an opportunity to buy Government property that is being sold. We have so many Government properties that are sold. First of all, before they are sold they are left to lie for three to five years since someone is planning for them. If it is a car, before it is sold someone had long tampered with the engine, and some tyres and parts of the car have been removed. A small accident involving a new car happens on Uhuru Highway and it is declared a wreck. They say. “Let us keep it somewhere and we will sell it one day.” In terms of disposal of public assets, you must have talked about how to manage them so that they will one day sell. Must we sell all public assets that can be repaired for use? This is something that I really would want to see in this Bill. That is how we will treat public assets that we deem are available for disposal. Also, we need to discuss how we will preserve these assets and ensure that when we sell them finally, the Government gets value for money. I would like to see more of such disciplines. I will bring amendments to ensure that public assets are disposed in a manner that saves money for the country. Instead of disposing motor vehicles or pikipikis, probably we could donate them to public training institutions. This is an area that policy makers must think about very soundly. Procurement planning should and, indeed, will be mandatory for any public entity that is going to procure. I dare say that these plans that are prepared probably should be submitted just for noting to the oversight authorities. This is so that we are able to hold somebody to account. If you prepared a procurement plan, did you follow it? Did you procure on time? Did you follow what is required? That is why I want to support what hon. Millie just said, that there must be some level of reporting not just on this Bill as a whole but on the aspect that will make procurement and disposal of public assets worthwhile. There are a couple of things which are very important. We have talked about allowing youth, women and groups that are disadvantaged to have some leverage. However, we do not see it in the Bill. I have been looking through the Bill and I have not been able to get a particular provision that talks about procurement opportunities being availed. This should be in another Bill or another Act but this should be the home for 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."
}