{"id":579887,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/579887/?format=json","text_counter":18,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Hon. Wangwe","speaker_title":"","speaker":{"id":2543,"legal_name":"Emmanuel Wangwe","slug":"emmanuel-wangwe"},"content":"THAT, aware that Article 35 of the Constitution entitles every citizen to access information required for enjoyment of their fundamental rights and freedoms; recognizing that advertising is an irreplaceable platform through which information is disseminated; recalling that the Government recently created a Government Advertisement Agency (GAA) vide Treasury Circular No.9 of 2015 on 10th June 2015; noting that the agency is, inter alia, mandated to authorize public sector advertising, implement sectoral standards, procedures and guidelines and manage consolidated Government advertising funds; concerned that the agency now requires all Government Ministries, public institutions and agencies to be subservient to it in procuring advertising services; worried that this conflicts with the Public Procurement and Disposable Act, 2005 that allows Ministries, public institutions and agencies to establish internal procurement structures; further concerned that GAA introduces a bureaucratic red tape in the procurement process, this House: (i) notes that GAA is not entrenched in law and that Government Ministries, public institutions and agencies are not obliged to obtain approval of GAA in procurement of advertising services; and, (ii) resolves that the National Treasury proposes appropriate legislation for consideration by Parliament with a view to establishing GAA as a statutory body charged with the management of public advertising and matters incidental thereto, pending which GAA should not continue to operate as a statutory body."}