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{
    "id": 668508,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/668508/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 97,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Gichigi",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1909,
        "legal_name": "Samuel Kamunye Gichigi",
        "slug": "samuel-kamunye-gichigi"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Speaker. I also rise to support the Appropriation Bill. The House has gone through the process of scrutinising the proposals by the National Treasury and the various ministries. All the Departmental Committees have had a go at those estimates. They have approved and prepared the necessary reports. They have given their views to the Budget and Appropriations Committee and the Committee has brought its views to this House. We are now merely allowing the Government to utilise the funds under the programmes that this House has already approved. I wish to reiterate the importance of this House carrying out its oversight mandate, not merely at the level of budget-making, but mostly after the Budget and the Appropriation bills are passed. Let us try to find out how this money is being utilised by the various ministries and agencies. It is very bad that when we make the Budget, we do not have a mirror image of it coming from the previous year’s implementation of programmes. It is important that as we allocate more money for a certain programme, we should have clear information on what the agency or ministry did with the money that was allocated to them the previous year. Perhaps, it is high time this House came up with a law to deal with oversight so that there is clarity on what the oversight role given to the National Assembly, the Senate and even Members of the County Assemblies (MCAs) is constitutionally. It is important that we come up with that law. It is very disappointing that after passing a Budget or the Appropriation Bill, the spending agencies hold onto the money and by the time the financial year ends, the money has not been utilised. This is a problem commonly known as absorption. I will request that all Departmental Committees deal with this issue of absorption. Since ministries and agencies will complain that it is a problem of Exchequer releases from the National Treasury, perhaps all of us now need to narrow down on that so that the spending agencies stop having those excuses. I will be very happy to hear that on 1st July, 2016, some spending agencies have received their funds and are already implementing the programmes that they proposed in the Budget, and which this House approved. The other issue that I would like the National Treasury as well as the Ministry to address is utilisation of external funding. Every year we hear that we have received external funding but the same is not spent. A portion of the money which is supposed to have been used in our Budget as counterpart funding has not been utilised. That means the development projections that the Government has made are not realised. It is important for people to know that if money for development is not used, the economy has suffered. If we had projected to develop at a rate of 5 per cent and use only 70 per cent of the development budget, it means we will not realise that development rate of 5 or 6 per cent. It is important that we deal with this issue. I have the opportunity to meet external donors and development partners. They keep on complaining that our systems and processes are very strong. Perhaps the National Treasury needs to sit down with various Government ministries and agencies to find out where the problem is. 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."
}