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{
    "id": 553597,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/553597/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 151,
    "type": "other",
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    "content": "However, the Budget and Appropriations Committee should not have just spoken to the Cabinet Secretary without going back to the Departmental Committee for their concurrence to the variations they were asking to be done to the recommendations. In this particular instant, we expect that if the Defence and Foreign Relations Committee feels so aggrieved, they should ask for an amendment by the House, so that we shall hear and agree to support them or support the Budget and Appropriations Committee’s resolution over this particular matter. If they fail to make such a proposal for an amendment even to deduct two pounds or two shillings from the budget of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to convey their sentiments on the absence of the Cabinet Secretary, we will go by what the Budget and Appropriations Committee has presented before us. This is because it is the Budget and Appropriations Committee that is mandated to present a report to us. The aggrieved Departmental Committee can then propose an amendment, which the House can accept or reject. That would settle that particular matter. Hon. Speaker, let me also talk about the consultation with the Executive. Honestly, I see a grave error in this Budget of 8 per cent of GDP as deficit financing; with the value of the shilling now, it is going to increase inflation and the whole country is going to be in trouble. It is the President and Parliament that take responsibility. That consultation should actually be in writing through the Speaker and not through a verbal process by a Member of a particular Committee. This is because it is accepting a verbal communication in an oral consultation with a constitutional office on decisions that have far reaching consequences in the management of our economy. When such consultation must take place, it should be presented to the Speaker in writing and be addressed in a letter. Even if the Committee goes to sit with the President to discuss issues, the response must come back through the Speaker in writing. That is why we put in the Constitution a clause restraining the President from making verbal declarations and instead requiring that all his decisions be communicated in writing, so that consequences can be accounted for in the future. I do not belong to any Departmental Committee because my party leader thinks that I have no brains any more to contribute to any of these deliberations, and hon. Midiwo supports him. That is by the way. Once this period is over, the Budget and Appropriations Committee will need to sit and agree on some procedures that will apply in the deliberations and amendments; deletions, additions and reductions in the course of the budget-making process. In future these matters can be clear to ensure that we do not start blaming one another simply because something was overlooked, yet we had no adequate provisions in handling a particular issue at that time. Thank you, hon. Speaker."
}