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{
    "id": 611760,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/611760/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 153,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Langat",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 384,
        "legal_name": "Benjamin Kipkirui Langat",
        "slug": "benjamin-langat"
    },
    "content": "Thank you very much hon. Deputy Speaker for giving me this opportunity to contribute to this debate on the Public Audit Bill, 2014. Hon. Deputy Speaker, from the outset I want to say that I support the Bill. The Auditor-General is a very good friend or partner, for that matter of Parliament. Parliament will succeed if we have a successful Office of the Auditor-General. Our oversight role as Parliament will be successful if we have a successful office of the Auditor-General. Therefore, I want to say that this House should treat the Office of the Auditor-General as a partner who needs to be supported, because they give us technical support in our oversight work. Hon. Deputy Speaker, we are increasingly calling for accountability and Parliament is a champion of accountability. It is only the Auditor-General who can help us to achieve this. This Bill seeks to establish the Office of Auditor-General pursuant to the new Constitution, and is actually repealing the former Act. What this House needs to check is the independence of the Office of the Auditor-General; if the Office of the Auditor-General is not independent then we may not see much. We, therefore, need to check whether what is being proposed really supports the independence of the Office of the Auditor-General. Hon. Deputy Speaker, a big part of independence comes from the ability to manage the financial bit. Will the Office of the Auditor-General be given powers and enough financial support? Over time, we have increasingly added responsibilities to this office. Hon. Deputy Speaker, with the new Constitution in place, we got 47 counties and all of them must be audited. With the new Constitution, we created quite a number of independent commissions. We even added constituencies which meant that the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF) must be audited. We increased them to 290. This is the time to look at whether the Office of the Auditor-General has been given sufficient funding; if we increase responsibility and demand professional work from them without giving them support as a House, it will be an effort in futility. Therefore, I want to make a few comments on these concerns. Already this Bill went under public debate outside there after it was read the Second Time. It has already been subjected to public and stakeholder debate. My committee is beginning to receive comments from the public and stakeholders. There are some concerns which this House needs to consider at the relevant stage. Under clauses 4, 8, 25 and 27, the staff of the Auditor-General’s Office is being subjected to the Public Service Commission (PSC). The PSC is brought in to help in recruitment of staff of the Auditor-General. We need to tailor the Office of the Auditor- General to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, because the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) employs its own staff. We cannot talk about 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."
}