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{
    "id": 74365,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/74365/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 357,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Kimunya",
    "speaker_title": "The Minister for Transport",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 174,
        "legal_name": "Amos Muhinga Kimunya",
        "slug": "amos-kimunya"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity to contribute to this debate on the report as presented by the PAC. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, let me start by congratulating the Committee, for not only doing a good job on this and highlighting the issues, but on coming up to speed with the audits and review of this. One looks forward to the day when we shall actually be debating the report of the year that has just ended rather than going back to history. The public out there are never sure of whether we are talking of current issues or issues that took place several years back. I believe that has been possible following the passage of the Public Audit Act in 2003. This follows the efforts that were put by the Kibaki Government from 2003 in terms of increasing and enhancing the levels of transparency. We were able to finish everything because of calling the auditors and telling them: “Go ahead, do the audit and let the public know how your Government has performed over the year.” This demonstration of enhanced transparency is something you do not hear much of in terms of appreciation of some of the positive things that this Government has done between 2003 and to 2007 and between 2008 to date. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the whole issue of parliamentary democracy and oversight is premised on the fact that Members of Parliament have been appointed to come and represent the people of Kenya to receive the Controller and Auditor-General’s Report as, indeed, Members receive an auditors report at the annual general meeting and interrogate it. If you go to any typical general meeting, you will find that debate on the accounts and the auditors report takes most of the time. It is the one that has most attention. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, looking at the House today when we are discussing the most important report for which the House has been set up and we talk of oversight role of this House, and we want even to increase the number of this House so that they can have proper oversight on the expenditure of Government, looking at the performance and this is a trend that we have observed on all the reports that have been tabled here, the most important report, the Public Accounts Committee Report, you can tell the interest on it by looking at the members who are here in the House today. It is a shame that this House that has 222 Members cannot spare this one or two afternoons to come and discuss the accountability by the Government and at least go and tell the people, “yes, your Government is doing well” or “your Government is doing poorly”. So I sympathise with the Committee for all the 100 meetings they have had. I hope that the absence of the Members here is not indicative of the disinterest they have and that, hopefully, they will be looking at that report because fundamentally it is not about telling who did what and when. It is not about which officer did not account for their imprest because that has already been handled by the Accounting Officers. It is about what lessons we can learn from the issues that have been highlighted by the Controller and"
}