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{
    "id": 683819,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/683819/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 211,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Nyamweya",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 391,
        "legal_name": "Manson Oyongo Nyamweya",
        "slug": "manson-nyamweya"
    },
    "content": "not approved by Parliament? What system was used to procure those items? It is a critical issue. It amounts to economic sabotage because you are spending what you do not have, which is illegal. The person who is most hurt is the contractor, supplier or service provider who is not going to be paid. Another area which is of concern is where people spend more money than what they have. Kshs24.5 billion was spent without the authority of Parliament. It means there was no money to pay. That is the message here. If there is excess expenditure, you do not have revenue to cover it. There is no money for it. It is criminal. The Office of the President must take this issue seriously if they want to help this nation. It affects innocent business people looking for business to genuinely make a living. When you go further, you find another big problem is pending bills. It has become a tradition that every year, we must have pending bills. This issue of pending bills affects women and the youth who are doing business with the Government. They are not being paid and yet, we are here to promote employment. We want people to be self-employed so that they can increase their income. Here is a case of somebody who is just starting his business supplying goods, but he is not paid. That amount becomes part of the pending bills. This is a serious concern for the country. We need to address it. It is a vicious cycle. A supplier approaches a bank while some go to the small women support groups to borrow money and they pay very high interests. They are not able to pay and it is not their fault. They genuinely got an order from a Ministry and they have not been paid. As we move on, I want to tell the Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury - he is the one who appoints the Accounting Officers - that those people are criminals! You cannot cause somebody’s property to be sold and yet, he has supplied goods to the Government. If you do not pay back the loan, your property will be sold and, of course, you will look bad. That is why we are talking about bank interest rates. This is the vicious cycle we have. You are not able to pay and the interest accumulates. Let us address issues that will benefit the nation. The Government must control its officers so that those pending bills are eliminated. The amounts look like figures when we read them here in the National Assembly. We are talking of pending bills of Kshs16.6 billion. Those are not small issues! Those are issues affecting small- scale business people. They affect the youth who have borrowed money from the Youth Enterprise Development Fund. They affect women who start businesses. It is very important that this issue is addressed adequately by the CS for the national Treasury. He has to rein in his officers. Why should you allow officers you control to spend money you do not have? It causes poverty. If you talk to people who have supplied goods to the Government, they will tell you the torture they undergo, some of which can break families. You can offer your home as security to take a loan. If you offer your home as security for a loan, your wife may not agree. Once you have taken the loan, you may not pay because you have not been paid by the Government after supplying goods. You even calculate the profit you will make. It is a big challenge this country faces. There is need to have discipline in the Ministries, especially among the Accounting Officers. We have issues with the Ministry of Devolution and Planning, which spent over Kshs8 billion, and is not able to account for. We hope next year we do not get similar Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Reports. We hope this comes to an end. The biggest challenge is that the 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."
}