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{
    "id": 742859,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/742859/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 249,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. J.K. Chege",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2129,
        "legal_name": "John Kiragu Chege",
        "slug": "john-kiragu-chege"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. First, I would like to support this Report. In doing so, I would like to thank this House and my colleagues in the PIC for the opportunity to serve in this Committee that has given me a lot of experience, particularly in looking at the huge number of parastatals where public funds have been invested. My experience is worrying that the economy of this nation has a major effect on how we perform through parastatals. My experience is that there is poor management in most parastatals and delay in making crucial decisions, like in tendering systems. Decisions on timely completion of projects have cost this nation a lot of money which in fact would have gone into more useful use other than paying variations due to pending bills. One of the other things that I have realised is that we need to strengthen our technical capacity, even in this House, because of the various reports that are brought before the House. It is important to understand that it is not only the financial side of management of parastatals that is important, but also the technical side. As an engineer who has worked in parastatals, I realise that a lot of resources have been wasted due to poor technical capacity. I reflect, for example, on the collapse of what we used to call one-metre gauge railway and I realise how public resources were disposed of as if we were not going to invest in railway again. Recently, this country had to invest a lot of money into the SGR, which is a wonderful project for this nation. If such a parastatal was working well, maybe the investment in SGR would be much less. We cannot also forget the experience we had to go through in Telkom Kenya. Resources were just sold to foreigners. As we look forward, we must have professionalism in the running of our parastatals. Appointment of top managers should not be on political grounds or ethnic or any other interests. We must know that such organisations are important for the economy of this nation. I believe if the parastatals are not working well, they drag development of this nation. If they were working well, we could easily move much faster. The issue of theft of public funds, a conspiracy that starts from tendering system to execution and litigation, is something that needs to be broken. One of the things that we have also experienced is that there is no follow up legal processes to make sure that the interest of the public is taken care of. As we go forward, it is also important to develop capacity, particularly in the office of the Auditor-General. We should provide adequate resources to make sure that the office provides the necessary staff and capacity to make sure that they follow up on these parastatals. It is important for all of us to know that when you are given public responsibility, we must do it not only for us, but also for our children. The work that has gone into looking at the reports during the time of this House, particularly by the PIC, has been a lot. I thank our Chairman for the leadership, and all my colleagues in making sure that we set a new record of all the other reports that have been done by previous sittings of this House. I believe the PIC is an important Committee in ensuring that this sector of our economy is streamlined. It is important for all of us to make sure that the reports that have been done are looked at seriously and the relevant organs of the Government take action on the recommendations made. The people who have been given the mandate to run these organisations should not just look at these reports as mere opportunity for appearance before the PIC, but as a serious conversation towards making sure that we streamline this sector for the welfare of this 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."
}