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{
    "id": 549047,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/549047/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 170,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Kaluma",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1565,
        "legal_name": "George Peter Opondo Kaluma",
        "slug": "george-peter-opondo-kaluma"
    },
    "content": "a company I know has been struggling over the past and I really doubt whether they have the capacity to execute that project. But I will give my guarded support. This is because the importance of that pipeline cannot be over-emphasized in terms of accidents that can be avoided, if we have it in place. It will reduce the cost of petroleum products. However, there is a part of the Report which I beg to emphasise. That is the idea that the Office of the A-G needs to be involved from the beginning to the end when we are doing contract documents. It is a feature of our Government contracting which we have been missing. It is something for which –for those of us who are trained in arbitration or have been engaged in it– it is the one point through which we have a lot of corruption in Government. In terms of construction arbitrations under the FIDIC (International Federation of Consulting Engineers) rules and the contract documents, there are two issues or matters for which our economy is usually looted by contractors. One is what they call variation of works, and I am happy that PIC has identified this and it is recommending that the bid prices ought not to change. What usually happens is that once the contractor starts executing projects, all sorts of variations and reasons for variations will be found. The cost of the works, of course, shoots to even more than three times the bid price. My hope is that this document will be going to Zakhem International Construction Limited so that we do not have those variations. The second thing in arbitration through which the money in contract works is stolen is what we call suspension of works. Hon. Members, for quite some time next to Capitol Hill across National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) Building, you saw a crane lying along the road doing no work. It is a situation where a contractor takes a contract, the works are suspended for some reasons and the contractors turn into an accountant instead of being the person implementing the works. People may take it for granted when you see a crane or some construction machinery lying somewhere but personnel rates are being calculated, the plant rates including those of that idling crane or machinery are being calculated day-in, day-out. Of course, those ones are ultimately paid under contract documentations. I want to beg that we go with the recommendations of PIC. For once, not only for Kenya Pipeline Corporation but also for all our State corporations, let the Attorney General be involved in those things from the beginning to the end. This is because we now have a problem in the Departmental Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs in terms of settlement of judgment dates, arbitral awards and those other issues. Of course, we are, sometimes, put in a corner by Kenyans saying: “We have a judgment date but the Government is delaying it.” You reach a situation where, because of the poor contract documentation already done, you cannot safeguard Government money other than saying that those judgment dates should not be paid. So, I would beg that those recommendations be sent to the A-G because, ultimately, and in this contracting, the corporations have internal lawyers. The contracting parties will have their private lawyers. But, ultimately, the responsibility of properly advising the Government and an undertaking obligation or duty for it lies with the Office of the Attorney-General. My prayer is that the documentation and the legal advice that needs to be given passes through the A-G. So, ultimately, when there are difficulties in terms of payments - or we 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."
}