Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 523288,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/523288/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 121,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon.H. K. Njuguna",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1508,
        "legal_name": "Humphrey Kimani Njuguna",
        "slug": "humphrey-kimani-njuguna"
    },
    "content": "Board might not have the commitment that is anticipated of this Board. I am just wondering whether it is not possible for these members to be made permanent for the period they serve on the Board, so that we can get the expected commitment. When the members of the Board are not committed, they will be out there doing other things. But when they are committed, their discharge of services to this country is likely to meet the threshold expected of them. I am concerned about Clause 10 of this Bill which talks about the Public Procurement Regulatory Board. It is the ultimate Board that will oversee the Secretariat. It is, therefore, a very important Board because it will give direction to the Secretariat. I am concerned about this Board because all the members, according to Clause 10, are supposed to be nominated by the Cabinet Secretary. In my opinion, this Board should be independent if it has to deliver. According to Clause 10, the Cabinet Secretary shall appoint five people and one of them will be the Chairman, who will ultimately be appointed by the President. Then there will be two other members, namely, the Cabinet Secretary and the Attorney-General. The quarrel I have with this clause is the Executive control. Being the ultimate body that is going to control the secretariat and therefore, controlling all matters concerning procurement, this Board ought to be independent. The Cabinet Secretary should nominate these people from persons forwarded by the professional bodies. He should not have the authority to nominate. Once he has this authority, it means that, by extension, he has patronage on how they discharge their duties. The Bill talks about seven members of the Board. However, this number is small and perhaps we should expand it to about ten because we now have counties, so that they can discharge their services without any lapse. We should not forget that the biggest problem that we have had in public procurement, even in the unresolved scandals, is the patronage of the process. We must find a way to anchor the new role such that this patronage is not there for our public procurement law to work as we want it to. 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."
}