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{
    "id": 71457,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/71457/?format=api",
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    "content": "become a norm. Ministers complain day in day out when they present their budgets in this House about under-funding in their Ministries. They urge this Parliament and the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and Ministry of Finance to increase the allocation towards their Ministries and yet at the end of the year, an accounting officer explains to the PAC that he or she has valid reasons for failing to expend funds which were allocated to the Ministry. That is a very serious concern. If we keep on stating in this House that the Ministries are under-funded and at the end of the year we are unable to expend, then it shows that even if we increase the level of funding to those Ministries, those monies will still be returned to the Treasury. This is an issue of great concern. There are areas where monies are expended and some departments would really be craving to have some little funds to offset very serious development issues. If Ministries are unable to expend monies allocated to them, then there is no reason why the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and Ministry of Finance should not increase the level of funding to the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) to 10 per cent because it is well spent. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, the second issue that I would like to bring out is with regard to pending bills. There is a trend in the Government and Ministries to try and do procurement towards the end of the financial year. Accounting Officers and the people concerned wait until they have about two or three weeks to the end of 30th June before they start to haggle and rush through procurement processes. This is of great concern because this is where things go wrong. In a bid to try and beat the deadlines and ensure that development projects are commenced within the financial year, they flout some regulations. They always circumvent some regulations in place by giving a flimsy reason. They say that the project has to commence because the financial year is ending. They come up with huge pending bills when they initiate those procurement processes. They say that they were unable to pay because the financial year came to an end. They carry over debts that they expect even our grandchildren to come and pay in the later years. The Government is not supposed to spend over its means. It is irregular when officers procure goods and services because the Treasury has pledged to allocate them some money. You can only spend what you have and not what the Treasury has pledged to allocate you. At the end of the day when the Treasury comes up with Supplementary Estimates and urges that some measures be taken to reduce Government spending, we do not realise the benefits of the reduction because the bills are carried over to the next year. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, the third issue is about delay in completion of projects. There seems to be a cartel in this area because projects which commenced in 2003/2004 keep on recurring in the subsequent years on flimsy grounds that the Exchequer releases were delayed, there were issues which were unresolved or the scope of work has changed. There would be cost implications if a financial year lapses and these projects are carried over to the next year. The officers will talk about rising fuel prices, the cost of materials going up, standards of living being high and the wages going up. You will see contracts being varied by 200 per cent or 300 per cent over the initial cost. This is of great concern. When timelines are set for contractors to complete their work, they should do so unless there are valid reasons to extend the time."
}