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{
    "id": 553603,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/553603/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 157,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Musyimi",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 95,
        "legal_name": "Mutava Musyimi",
        "slug": "mutava-musyimi"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, hon. Speaker. Let me begin by apologising to the Chair of the Departmental Committee on Defence and Foreign Relations, my good friend, the hon. Member for Tetu. I should have called him. That is what I normally do. However, in a minute, you will know why it did not happen. I am not withdrawing my apology. I mean it. The timelines that we have been working with put the Budget and Appropriations Committee in a pressure cooker situation that is actually impossible to manage. Through you, let me inform this honourable House that the Committees of this House presented their reports on Friday last week. Friday last week was the deadline. The Parliamentary Budget Office had Friday to compile those reports. I then instructed the Budget Office to call the Members of my Committee and tell them that we needed to report for work on Sunday. You know my background. It was not an easy decision for me. I reported to the venue on Sunday at 11.00 a.m. I had asked the Cabinet Secretary and the Principal Secretary of the National Treasury to be there. The law demands that we meet the National Treasury. We spent Sunday going through our concerns with the Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury, because he was travelling on Monday to Abidjan. Given the substantive weight of the issues we were discussing, it was not going to be possible to just deal with the Principal Secretary. Today is Wednesday. So, we had Monday to go through the reports from the Departmental Committee Chairs. We started our sittings at 9.00 a.m. on Monday. We had to listen to the Departmental Committee Chairs as they gave us their reports. Those reports had to be completed and then we had to call the National Treasury on Monday, so that we could talk to them as we had the benefit of the views of the Committees. This is because we respect what the Committees say. So, we asked the National Treasury to come back on Monday at 4.00 p.m. Having listened to the Reports of the Departmental Committee Chairs, we then asked ourselves what they had said and what we should tell the National Treasury. So, we had a long session with the National Treasury, which ended at around 6.00 p.m. From then on, we began making decisions because that is the responsibility given to us by the law. It was the expectations of this House and our people. At some point, whether you like it or not, the buck has to stop somewhere. So we began to make decisions at about 6.00 p.m. We went through each committee’s report. We finished at around 9.00 p.m. or 10.00 p.m. on Monday, so that we could give the Parliamentary Budget Office the opportunity to compile the resolutions of the Budget and Appropriations Committee yesterday, which they did."
}