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{
    "id": 553544,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/553544/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 98,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Hon. Speaker, we need your guidance, because, as much as the National Assembly has immense constitutional powers, there is a section on reductions and additions in this Report. If you reduce Kshs2 billion from a Ministry, this House must be told the reason. From the respective Departmental Committee to the Budget and Appropriations Committee, we must have a narrative why Kshs3 or Kshs4 billion is taken from department “X”; tell us also why at time at the same time you are giving an extra Kshs2 billion to another department. This is about accountability. This is about transparency. If you are, for example, giving Hon. Onyonka’s Ministry Kshs3 billion and you are reducing the allocation to the Ministry headed by Hon. Chris Wamalwa by Kshs5 billion, you must give a due diligence report, saying you are giving the following reasons why you are doing this. I am not agreeing but I think what we are dealing with today, as much as I agree with the Chairman of the Budget and Appropriations Committee, is to make sure we improve on the Budget process every year. I want the other Departmental Committees and the Budget and Appropriations Committee members not to take offence. It will improve on our budget-making process. We are in the middle of our third year, and I think we want to make the budget-making process more transparent, accountable and better to the people of Kenya. The other issue that was raised by Hon. Jakoyo was the absence of CSs. If I was the Chairman of the Budget and Appropriations Committee, I would not answer that question of why so and so did not come. That is not your domain. It should squarely lie with the chairperson, vice-chairperson or members of the respective committee. The mechanism for inviting a CS, or an Accounting Officer, is well stipulated in the Constitution and the Standing Orders. If he does not come, the repercussions are again in the Standing Orders. It should not be something that will be debated by this House. When we were going on recess, one of the Statements I read on behalf of the House Business Committee (HBC) was to give a schedule on how the Departmental Committees and the Executive would look at the Budget. The Executive’s most important item in Parliament is the Budget."
}