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"id": 73341,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Mbau",
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"legal_name": "Elias Peter Mbau",
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"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I thank you for giving me a chance to support this very important Motion on Government expenditure. Right from the onset, I want to applaud the PAC, led by hon. Khalwale, for actually having achieved a very commendable feet of ensuring that the reports of the Controller and Auditor-General on expenditure by the Government of Kenya are brought up to date. As we talk, we are discussing the Audit Report of 2007/2008, noting that only today did the Chairman of the PAC actually lay on the Table the most current Report of 2008/2009. I want to applaud them for that bit. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the major objective of reports of PAC is to ensure that financial management of monies collected from taxpayers is done prudently and in a manner that delivers value to taxpayers. Reading through the Report of this Committee, one is able to unearth very many anomalies which leave a lot to be desired; anomalies of how our Accounting Officers oversee the application of public monies. One of the things we must bring into compliance is ensuring that we have compelled, through legal mechanisms, Accounting Officers to take action on corrective measures recommended by the Committee in this Report, which we support, and which we are going to adopt, so that it does not appear like Members of Parliament, as overseers of public monies and expenditure, just come here to talk, talk and just talk. We should not use this House for adopting and making recommendations in vain. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, as all the speakers before me have said, I would like to say that we are living in a different country, in a different era and in different times, when Members of the National Assembly must become effective in ensuring that efficiency is achieved through delivery of services to wananchi . When we read, in this Report, of over-expenditure by Accounting Officers of various Government Departments and Ministries without them having brought those intended over-expenditures to this House for approval, what are we supposed to make out of it? When we read in this Report of many Government departments having lived below expectation in the collection of Appropriation-In-Aid (A-In-A) falling within their various areas of expenditure, what are we supposed to make of these Accounting Officers in terms of efficiency and effectiveness? Sometimes, it appears like it is normal when officers spend public money. It does not appear like it is painful because the money appears to belong to the general public. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we must not forget at any one time that public resources that are put to use in the various Government departments are usually collected from very needy people who go to shops to buy very small portions of sugar, milk, salt and other various essential commodities and thereby end up paying taxes painfully. Since they do so painfully, it is imperative that those officers who are given the honour of overseeing the usage of public resources have some due regard to where those resources come from. Time has come for us as a country to begin asking ourselves how much resources we have, and how much we can achieve with those resources. Can we begin to look into our accounting systems in terms of results and outcomes, so that even when we do budgets and continue to approve monies for various Government"
}