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{
    "id": 611745,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/611745/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 138,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Gichigi",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1909,
        "legal_name": "Samuel Kamunye Gichigi",
        "slug": "samuel-kamunye-gichigi"
    },
    "content": "Hon. Deputy Speaker, all of us know that about 30 per cent of the Development Vote of this country’s Budget goes to waste. Once the provisions of this Bill are in force, it is will be possible for us to arrest part of that wastage. Further, the Bill seeks to give to the Office of the Auditor-General power to compulsorily obtain information from public bodies and officers. Public bodies or auditors cannot refuse to provide information demanded by the Office of the Auditor- General, unlike what used to happen in the past. I have a few amendments that I will be proposing. One of them is on the Audit Advisory Board (AAB). There is a requirement that its members be degree holders, yet out of the seven members, two are not required to be degree holders. That is something we need to correct through amendment of Clause 25(2). The other amendment that I will be proposing is on the requirement that the officers serve a three-year term, renewable once. This provision needs to be reviewed because most of the membership of the Audit Advisory Board is offices in the Government. We cannot say that such persons should stop serving on the Audit Advisory Board. Hon. Deputy Speaker, I am happy that this Bill is going to enable the Office of the Auditor-General to submit its annual reports to Parliament in a timely manner, so that we can approve and use them when dealing with the Division of Revenue Bill. It is important that the Office of the Auditor-General completes its work in time and brings its reports to Parliament. Hon. Deputy Speaker, I hope that we will be accessing reports of audits conducted at the county government level because money is being wasted in the counties. I ask this House that, in addition to the other oversight bodies that we have at the county government level, most of which are not doing their work, we look at what the Auditor- General says regarding expenditure of public funds in the counties. This is the House which participates actively in allocating resources to public entities. As a House, we undertake vertical and horizontal division of the annual national revenue. We give resources to the county governments and the national Government. Therefore, it is important that we also oversee and audit the expenditure of that money, especially through examination of audit reports. Finally, it is very sad that we hear rumours to the effect that some officers in the Office of the Auditor-General seek and get bribes when they go to the field to carry out audits. It would be disastrous for this country for the persons who are supposed to tell us The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}