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{
    "id": 523271,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/523271/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 104,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Eng.) Gumbo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 24,
        "legal_name": "Nicholas Gumbo",
        "slug": "nicholas-gumbo"
    },
    "content": "Hon. Speaker, this is a very clear distinction. Clearly, you cannot lampoon professional services with tangible goods. Even me, yours truly the hon. Member for Rarieda, have had an occasion to make Kshs1 million while sleeping on my bed. How did I do it? Somebody was having a problem which I knew. He had run all over the place and had been charged millions of shillings and I told him that I could sort out his problem, but first of all he had to give me a Local Purchase Order (LPO) for Kshs1 million. Sleeping on my bed, I gave him advice that helped him. Of course we argued later. He told me: “But you never even came” but I told him: “No. I am charging you Kshs1 million for knowing what you should do.” So, you cannot sincerely charge professional services in the manner you charge for goods. I think we have to move an amendment even as we go into debating this Bill. Honestly, it is not even asking for too much. The PPOA actually realised this problem and in this circular, they went ahead and accepted that they had no problem as long as professionals were willing to charge within the guidelines. However, they can compete on financial terms if they wanted to charge more.By making this provision, as it is, we are taking ourselves backwards and I will propose it be changed in my amendments. Clause 6 of this Bill talks about conflict in international agreements. We will need to look at this at it; you know that this country, and others in the Third World in general, have had very many issues with economic partnership agreements, yet this clause says that: “Subject to the Constitution, where any provision of this Act conflicts with any obligations of the Republic of Kenya arising from treaty, agreement or other convention ratified by Kenya and to which Kenya is party, the terms of the treaty or agreement shall prevail.” Hon. Speaker, I honestly have a problem with this provision because some of these provisions take account of the interests of those who are outside our borders and not the people of Kenya. Provisions under Part II, which define the bodies involved and the role of the National Treasury, are good. What we have to avoid, however, is letting the National Treasury to micro-manage procurement processes, as has happened before in so many cases. I wish to move to the next area, which is Part III on the county government responsibilities with respect to public procurement and asset disposal. The procedure outlined by Clause 33 is good because we have problems in the counties. As we speak today, there is a lot of wastage in our county governments; a lot of times procurement procedures are literally thrown out of the window before people engage in procurement. 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."
}