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{
    "id": 761407,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/761407/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 1208,
    "type": "other",
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "avoid distorting the policy direction of the budget. As such, any projects with budgetary provisions that do not meet the criteria for a supplementary budget should be deferred to the next financial year. Under the current Recurrent Budget, it is also noted that significant cuts have been effected on various items, including domestic travel, foreign travel and training expenses. Indeed, there is a reduction of 20 per cent on domestic travel and 75 per cent on foreign travel, training expenses, printing and advertising, among other expenses, for operation and maintenance across the board for all the ministries, departments and agencies, including Parliament and the Judiciary. In particular, significant reductions are noted in the Recurrent Budget under both the Parliamentary Service Commission and the National Assembly Votes, which have been reduced by Kshs6.8 billion. The bulk of these cuts relate to Committee work for both the National Assembly and the Senate. Other significant cuts have been made in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, where a reduction of a sum of Kshs32 billion meant for operations and maintenance expenses in Kenyan consulates, embassies and high commissions all over the world has been effected. For the benefit of the Members who are new in this House, what I am reading now are recommendations given by the National Treasury in the draft Supplementary Estimates. I have not reached our recommendations. The ones I am reading are recommendations by the National Treasury. They should not be construed to be recommendations by this Committee. Before the end of this Report, you will hear our recommendations. I urge this House to just hold on a bit. The Committee observes that despite these austerity measures, the total Recurrent Budget has gone up by Kshs63 billion. The major increments will mainly cater for the following very important activities: 1. A sum of Kshs23 billion will be enhancement of the Free Day Secondary Education programme. This is in line with the current proposal by the national Government to have universal secondary education, beginning January, 2018. That policy is coming to reality with the allocation of Kshs23 billion which has been provided for the programme. 2. There is also an allocation of Kshs10 billion for the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to cater for the repeat presidential election. The impact of a repeat election is coming to reality. The economy has to inject at least Kshs10 billion to cater for this activity, which is going to happen with no doubt on 26th October 2017. For record purposes, I wish to state very clearly that so far, the election is still scheduled. We have not seen any indication from the IEBC not to allocate this money. Therefore, this money has been allocated and squarely I propose to this House that you adopt it. 3. There is also a recommendation of Kshs6.1 billion for older persons cash transfer programme. You remember that the Government has expanded the cash transfer programme to cover all older persons in the society who are above 70 years. This will be starting from January and the provision of Kshs6.2 billion has been provided. 4. There is Kshs6.9 billion for security operations, including resettlement of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) who are expected to be the last lot of IDPs. These were occasioned by post-election violence, which we are not amused about. We want to close this chapter and we do not want anything like this to happen again in this country. 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."
}