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{
    "id": 551064,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/551064/?format=api",
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Madam Temporary Speaker, the Auditor-General should be able to audit all public institutions without any restrictions whatsoever. They are also Kenyan. I do not think that there is any department today that can say in this digital era, that its activities are so secret and confidential, that it will not be known. Even if it is procurement of arms, before they even land here, we know; the bills of landing, shipping and so on, are everywhere. What we have, what we do not have and how much they cost are known. So, there is no confidentiality. We should trust them also; that in terms of confidentiality, that they are also confidential. They can be vetted; they can swear. I believe they also took the oath of secrecy when they were employed. The Auditor-General has in the past, always been doing what I may call the “postmortem” audit; after the events. This means that they are trying to find where a fault has occurred. If we have to succeed, then that office should be looking more at how to establish systems to prevent loss or theft of Government property. From time to time, it should audit not just finances but the systems as well. Madam Temporary Speaker, for instance, if we talk about Government revenue, the receipts that are printed by the Government Printer for a long time; the yellow ones, we were given for land and anything regardless of the amount - the road license, etcetera, they are always yellow or something like that. Those are easy to print. Crooks are printing them and the clerks are running parallel systems; one for the Government and another one for their own purposes. In the morning, he uses one and in the afternoon he uses another one running with same serial number. This has been going on and nobody has ever corrected it. Systems must be changed. Use and introduce secure electronic documents and, perhaps it may not even be necessary that payments for services are done in Government offices. We should move to the banks and pay there directly so that we reduce the expenditure and the risk of handling cash. I have also looked at the issue of the advisory board. The Auditor-General has been given a responsibility under the Constitution and the buck stops with him. We should not create a situation or a legislation should not be put in place to enable him run away from responsibility or to shift that responsibility to somebody else. In terms of recruitment, he should recruit the staff he feels can perform. If they do not perform, then it will be upon him because he is the one who will have recruited them. However, if you give that role to somebody else who is a third party, then next thing you will hear is that those people came in because they were politically correct. I have not heard of any Auditor-General who has said that he needs assistance from other parties to do his job. It may not be necessary to do so. I support."
}