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{
    "id": 58900,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/58900/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 261,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Otieno",
    "speaker_title": "The Minister of State for Public Service",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I rise to support this Motion as much as the former speaker had a valid point; that what is owed to CDF should have been taken into account. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I think the Minister has really tried. I am aware of the pressures that the Treasury has got in trying to allocate the resources. The adjustments of about Kshs30 billion in this particular Supplementary Estimates are really fairly minimal considered with what I used to see in past Supplementary Estimates. So, the financial management is a lot improved in the Treasury as of now. I am particularly happy with the attention that Treasury is giving to human resource issues, particularly the payments of commuter allowances, payments to the police and additional payments to the teachers. As much as what we have been requesting is much higher than these figures, the Treasury is giving due regard to human resource capacity building, training and motivation and due care to all the employees in Government. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, much of the reduction of Kshs30 million is actually in the Development Expenditure. You will find that a lot has been taken out of projects that could not be implemented simply because we did not have capacity on the ground for effective project management. Even with the well allocated resources for Economic Stimulus Programme, capacity was not available in terms of human resource training and development at the constituencies and in the different districts to be able to absorb these funds effectively and efficiently. So, what is allocated really is what was unlikely to be used for development purposes in the remaining period of this financial year. As much as we can argue that the reduction of Development Expenditure is going to slow the growth, I think the solution is in enhancing capacity development, so that we absorb all the development funds from Treasury and elsewhere and apply them efficiently. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I have had very bad experience with a number of contractors. Work is disbursed but in so many districts we do not have competent contractors to use the funds effectively on the ground. We continue to lose a lot of money in leakages, particularly in procurement at the grassroots level in the district treasuries and constituencies. The faster we can implement e-Government and e- procurement the better so that we can save more than 40 per cent of what we are spending on common purchases. These are the funds that can be re-allocated for development purposes. In the scenario as it exists now, the Treasury has really done its best and the adjustments are minimal and it deserves our support. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I beg to support."
}