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{
    "id": 683513,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/683513/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 213,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Eng.) Gumbo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 24,
        "legal_name": "Nicholas Gumbo",
        "slug": "nicholas-gumbo"
    },
    "content": "of public resources go to the courts, get injunctions and the hands of other accountability institutions, Parliament being one of them, are tied and they cannot do much. We plead with our court system, without in any way wanting to infringe on their independence, to understand the spectrum within which we work so that it does not become a fall-back point for people to try to escape accountability. The other point is what Hon. Johanna Ngeno raised. If you look at this Report, you will realise that the moving theme in this Report is outright incompetence, outright apathy and outright hostility of Accounting Officers towards oversight Committees like PAC. The issue which keeps coming up is that sometimes we have to write to the Office of the Head of Public Service which, unfortunately, is not a constitutional office, to ask it to try and enforce appearance of Accounting Officers. There are lawyers in this House, and I stand to be guided. Can a non- constitutional office holder command authority over a constitutional officer holder? With my limited knowledge in law, I dare say I do not think it is possible. The Constitution is the supreme law. Quietly, some of these Accounting Officers tell us that we use the wrong channel to ask them to appear before the Committee because we are trying to make them answerable to people who are not constitutional office holders. As a country, we need to look at what is required of the Secretary to the Cabinet. Of all the three arms of the Government, Parliament is the institution which is commanded to make sure that the Constitution is protected. That is a provision in our Constitution. One of our roles is to make sure that the Constitution is protected. I think it is wrong for this House to continue being quiet when a major constitutional office, like that of the Secretary to the Cabinet, still remains unoccupied more than one year later. Yes, we rejected Madam Juma, which is our right to do so, but surely is there only one person who can hold that office? I am surprised that someone has not gone to court to question the communication of Cabinet decisions because the Constitution is very clear that it is only the Secretary to the Cabinet who can communicate Cabinet decisions. So, who then communicates Cabinet decisions? Who do the Principal Secretaries (PS) look up to as their boss? I doubt, with all due respect to the office held by Mr. Kinyua, that it would be right to expect senior constitutional office holders to answer to a non-constitutional office holder. The other point that has come up is a standard practice the world over. Before this House is a Report of a benchmarking trip we went to China. People are accountable in China because if a ministry, department or state agency cannot prove that they have the capacity to absorb the allocations they have been given in a particular year that is taken into account in subsequent allocations. We engaged the CS for National Treasury two days ago and we asked ourselves this question: If a Ministry has perennially been proving that its absorption capacity is only 70 per cent of what it is allocated, why can we not take that into account as being one of the key cogs in the budget-making process of this country? That would be important information in determining allocations for subsequent years. So, this House needs to engage the CS for National Treasury and ask this pertinent question: Why does the Treasury continue to fund ministries, departments and agencies which routinely, perennially, and sometimes with impunity, continue to flout public expenditure rules and regulations? This is because they are there. The culprit ministries are all over the place. This is important. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I am a Kenyan and I believe in this country. I also love it. It is good for this House to appreciate those civil servants who go out of their way using very limited resources to make a difference in this country. As a Kenyan, I want it to go on record"
}