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    "id": 553606,
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    "content": "its work, the Chairman was left going through the minutes, signing them and making sure all the annexure was in place. Then I had to come back to this House to table the report at about 5.30 p.m., so that it could be on the Order Paper today. Hon. Speaker, all that I am saying, in a very polite way, is that can we please check the timelines because they are impossible to work with, especially the timelines that we are given by the Departmental Committee on Defence and Foreign Relations. Once in a while, I have asked the Members of the Committee to take the Chair, so that they know what it feels like. The timelines are impossible. They are absolutely impossible. You are trying to go through a process in three days that should take about three weeks. It is a pressure cooker. Once we are done with the National Treasury, there are outstanding issues that are bigger than the National Treasury, whether you like it or not. In presidential systems that work, the Budget and Appropriations Committee and its Chairperson will from time to time meet the Head of State. That is normal. If you do not, you will pass a Bill in this House and create over- expenditure. It will go to State House and the President has the discretion not to sign that Bill into law. So what will it achieve? What will it give you? There is a sense in which you are negotiating difficult realities as the Chairman of the Budget and Appropriations Committee. That is my job. If I failed in that, I should not be the Chairman of the Budget and Appropriations Committee. I chaired another Committee in the Tenth Parliament. I know the frustrations that the hon. Members are speaking to. That brings me to my second point, which has to do with the composition of the Budget and Appropriations Committee. As you give your ruling and direction--- I have come to realise one thing - I am doing my second term in Parliament - all these discussions you are hearing, are not as innocent as they may seem. On the surface they seem innocent but they are not as innocent. What am I saying? Let me explain myself. I believe that we should consider reverting to the old system where the chairpersons of Committees are ex-officio Members of the Budget and Appropriations Committee, and where they can come and explain themselves as Members of that Committee in their own right. I will take it even further and say that – this is a matter which I have considered over two years - when we come to consider the changing of the Standing Orders, and given the responsibilities that this Committee has, I would wish that each county is represented by a Member of Parliament in the Budget and Appropriations Committee. I have reasons for saying that which I cannot say here. If you have 51 Members of the Budget and Appropriations Committee, each county should bring a Member totalling to 47 Members. That would be necessary going forward, so that there is a sense of equity and inclusiveness as we discuss the national Budget. I come from the reform tradition, and so changes do not frighten me. I like them, especially if they are in the public interest. That is my background and I think you know it. I have been in it for 30 years. Hon. Jakoyo, I can hardly hear myself. Any changes that will add value to the Public Finance Management (PFM) Act, the Constitution and the relevant laws, bring them on board. That is why I am very glad that we are now doing a socio-economic audit of the 2010 Constitution. I had a lot of involvement in the reform process, I have come to appreciate that in programme work, once you restructure the country as we did in 2010, you must have the guts and humility to stand back and ask yourself how we are performing four or five years down the track. Where are the red flags? This is so that"
}