Entry Instance

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

{
    "id": 553494,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/553494/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 48,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "A notable point in public debt is that external borrowing from commercial sources has taken great prominence since 2014, leading to increased foreign debt service. For example, the Government will spend Kshs16 billion in the 2015/2016 Financial Year to service the interest component of Kenya’s first Sovereign Bond. This constitutes 54 per cent of the total external interest rate payment. Even though Kenya’s debt is estimated as sustainable currently based on standard measurements, future economic performance, exchange and interest rate risks and other external economic shocks cannot be known for sure and may play a negative factor. Given these uncertainties about future economic performance, the Budget and Appropriations Committee urges caution on further issuance of commercial foreign debt. With respect to policy prescriptions and having considered the above matters, the Budget and Appropriations Committee wishes to recommend as follows:- (1) All Ministries, Departments and Agencies must strive to remain within the ceilings as provided in the House resolutions on the Budget Policy Statement (BPS), except where changes are absolutely necessary. Where changes are made, that information should be provided to the National Assembly in a fairly comprehensive manner. This will ensure that the BPS remains the policy anchor and platform of our budget-making process. (2) The National Treasury should ensure that the tenets of programme-based budgeting are clearly understood by the line Ministries and the targets and outputs clearly defined to avert a situation where Ministries remain unaware of their targets and outputs. This will mainstream programme-based budgeting as per the Public Financial Management (PFM) Act, 2012. (3) The approved Estimates and actual performance of the previous Budget should be included in the proposed Budget for the Financial Year in line with the medium term expenditure framework. This will facilitate the National Assembly in exercising its budgetary oversight role. (4) Specific Ministries should prioritise their expenditures to accommodate any pending bills on the commencement of the financial year in order to address this issue. Moreover, there is need for a proper framework of settling pending bills to ensure that they are not carried to the Supplementary Estimates. (5) The Government should increase its allocations for capital projects and consider a freeze on introduction of any new capital projects until all ongoing projects have been completed. This is so as to ensure that all ongoing capital projects are completed within the next three financial years. (6) Parliament should move with speed to conclude its deliberations on the Equalisation Fund Regulations in order to ensure that the country begins to benefit from the Equalisation Fund. (7) Measures should be taken to realign the Appropriations-in-Aid (A-in-A) like other taxes in order to increase revenue yield and attain equity as well as fairness in its implementation. This will remedy the challenges associated with the collection of A-in-A. (8) Finally, the national Government should consider a realignment of functions within the line Ministries to address any duplication of functions. This will ensure that projects are domiciled under the line ministry which is best equipped to undertake the programme and avert requests for re-assignment of various programmes to other votes. As we begin discussion on the Estimates of the national Government, we have yet to complete the process of mediation with respect to the Division of Revenue Bill. As the Hon. Members are aware, three of us from this Chamber are representing the National Assembly in the mediation process. The Members are Hon. T.J. Kajwang’, Hon. Mary Emaase who is also the Vice-Chair of the Budget and Appropriations Committee and myself. From the Senate, we have"
}