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{
    "id": 742482,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/742482/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 309,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Dr.) Nyikal",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 434,
        "legal_name": "James Nyikal",
        "slug": "james-nyikal"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for giving me an opportunity to contribute to this Motion. I rise to support, though with some reservations which I will mention here. Before I do that, I must appreciate the work of the Budget and Appropriations Committee. I do understand how complex and time consuming it is, especially when we are discussing it at this time of the year. At this stage of Parliament, I think they have done a commendable job. I know the Constitution gives flexibility to have more than one supplementary budget in a year. In fact, we could have several. This is actually the second one in this year. I think we should not replace proper planning with a number of many small supplementary budgets. This is because if we have very many supplementary budgets, it means we are actually not planning well and may actually be burdening the Budget and Appropriations Committee. That is an important part we should take. The other issue we should look at is that, if we have this flexibility, we should then be very careful what information is given to the Committee. I know that when we pass a supplementary budget, some part of it is money that has already been spent and which is actually being regularised. Within the information given, it is not often easy to know whether you are passing money that has been spent or that will be spent. That is important information. I would ask the Budget and Appropriations Committee to insist when bringing this to the House. We should know what is to be spent and what has been spent. This is particularly important now when we are in the last few weeks of the financial year and we are passing KShs64 billion. If all that money is to be spent now, one wonders how it will be spent. Considering that this is actually an election year, it can lead to speculation as to why this huge amount is coming to be spent so easily. Therefore, to avoid that, we should have that information. Let me also comment about the pending bills. I think this is something we can avoid. To a large extent, this comes with late procurement of projects. We can actually plan because the budget process starts as early as August, September or October. Once certain projects have been identified, it is actually possible to start preliminary arrangements and planning so that as soon as the money is available, this money is applied and the projects are completed in time to be paid for. 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."
}