HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"id": 73355,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/73355/?format=api",
"text_counter": 355,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Ethuro",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 158,
"legal_name": "Ekwee David Ethuro",
"slug": "ekwee-ethuro"
},
"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to thank you, first and foremost, for giving me this opportunity to contribute to the report of the Public Accounts Committee. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, this Committee has traditionally defined oversight of Parliament and it continues to play that role. Of course, with the new Standing Orders, even the Departmental Committees are now becoming more active. But this Committee, PIC and other investigatory Committee such as the Local Authorities and Fund Accounts Committee have a critical role in terms of dealing with the Reports of the Controller and Auditor General. We, as a Parliament, after appropriating money to the Executive, need somebody to check whether that money was spent for the purposes it was intended for. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, this is a good job. In the last Parliament, I served in this Committee and started a good tradition of doing two reports per annum. We found there was a lot of backlog. We were basically dealing with dead matter and dead people. To seek evidence from dead people, you remember Justice Kwach, during the enquiry of the late Ouko to the pathologist that he was lucky he was dealing with the dead people. That is how the Government used to get away with it. But the Committee comprises of eminent Members. The Chairman described the contribution each one of them was making to the Committee. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the bull fighter of Ikolomani has brought the same tactics of bull fighting to the parliamentary business. Unless Dr. Gilchrist too, may have problems with the animal welfare concerns, I think those same tactics are finding meaning and relevance in this Committee. I think, Dr. Khalwale is demonstrating one thing, and this is what we said in Parliament. Well, generally, it is good for people professionally aligned to a particular matter to be there, and I think the honorable Minister for Medical Services, Prof. Anyang’Nyong’o has also alluded to the same. When we sit in Committees, we are like the members of the jury. In the jury system, you do not have to be a lawyer; you are looking at other issues of public interest or public concern. Also, the skills that members bring irrespective of their professional backgrounds, can really take this matter forward. I think we are very grateful as a House that we have hon. Members under the chairmanship of Dr. Khalwale, who has been taking this business of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) forward. Public accounts and dealing with reports of people who have been misappropriating public money is not easy. If you are not strong enough; if you are not here with a mission to do a good job for Parliament--- Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, you only need to know the history of PACs, even in this Parliament. There were days when PAC Members could not agree on any matter because they were beholden to interests outside Parliament. But, now, this Parliament has basically come of age and, I think, it can interrogate any matter confidently and sufficiently enough in order to send even Ministers home. In fact, now, the most insecure job is a Minister’s job. During Moi’s era, Permanent Secretaries were never permanent but now, Ministers are joining the league of not being sure whether they will have a job the next day if they did one or two funny things. In this particular Report, the Committee had 100 sittings, and you know how intensive this business is. I wish them well. The Committee has also owned up that they lacked quorum. It was a challenge because we have made more Committees and"
}