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{
    "id": 523393,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/523393/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 226,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Ogari",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 385,
        "legal_name": "Simon Ogari Arama",
        "slug": "simon-ogari"
    },
    "content": "procurement entities, including our own Constituencies Development Fund (CDF) offices. That is going to take a number of years to come by. In the course of it, we might end up having many untrained officers becoming the Accounting Officers because even when I look at their own Act and read about persons entitled to be registered--- Article 16 of their Act says that a person shall be entitled to registration if he satisfies the Council that he is of good conduct and has paid registration fee and that he has successfully undergone a prescribed certificate, diploma, degree or research course of instruction. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, if that is what is required for the registration of a procurement consultant, the bar is quite low. Yet, we expect them to man and implement this Act countrywide, in every procurement entity. The other issue which has been canvassed before by quite a number of colleagues purports the Bill will override other professional services. You have been particularly referred to Clause 5 of this Bill. If it goes the way it is, then it means even the professionals who are involved in procurement will be affected. That is because, as a colleague on the other side of the House said, procurement is quite wide and almost every profession, in one way or another; is involved in it. If you look at Clause 5, it is like this shall prevail over other Acts. Part I has been canvassed. Part I is a provision of an Act that provides for a person or body to approve any work or expenditure. It shall not be construed as giving that person or body any power with respect to procurement processes. What this means is that even if it is a lawyer who has approved a conveyance transition, it does not give him any power at all. If an engineer has specified some materials for construction, somebody else can override that certification. The term “approval” is used quite a lot in professional language, including medicine. It means that it has been approved by a professional. So, if that clause stays, then I think quite a number of us will be out of business and profession. The other one is Clause 59(3)(a) which says: “The technical requirements shall, where appropriate – (a) relate to performance rather than to design or descriptive characteristics.” Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, that is very dangerous because it means that your design can be ignored. The procurement officers or entity can go for the performance and not the design or descriptive characteristics which are specifications. That means that even your design can be ignored. I can go on and on and even quote Clause 71. I do not want to go there because that is also compelling everybody else to go by the provisions of this Bill which is something I would not mind to go with as long as it has been amended accordingly. In a way, I think this Bill also oversteps the mandate of authorities which have been established. One of the issues it talks about is that of establishing standards. When the Authority wants to take upon itself to establish and use their standards, what happens to the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) which is the statutory body licensed and has the powers to establish and publish the standards for use by other public and private bodies? Let me also talk of establishing a register by the Authority that we are creating. What happens to the registers being established by statutory bodies like the Kenya Construction Authority (KCA) and what about the regulatory professional bodies? I believe that when you want to procure lawyers, you go to the Law Society of Kenya 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."
}