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{
    "id": 804114,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/804114/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 73,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Ng’ongo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 110,
        "legal_name": "John Mbadi Ng'ong'o",
        "slug": "john-mbadi"
    },
    "content": "I thought what Hon. Maore would have spoken to is the issue of duplication of responsibility. As a matter of fact, that is where I probably have a problem. For example, take a country like Uganda during their PAC sittings police officers are usually in the adjacent room. So, if a witness gives evidence and the Committee is convinced that either the witness is misleading the Committee or implicated they are arrested right away. In fact, I think that is the direction we should take as a country, to deter corruption. We need to give the oversight committees like PAC and PIC powers to prosecute. They should take these people to court on the spot so that our Reports do not gather dust in the shelves. Hon. Speaker, you will agree with me because you have memory of this House. There are a number of Government officers who have been implicated and Committee Reports have recommended their prosecution but nothing has happened. So, we should take that direction. I want to raise a point which I think Hon. Maoka Maore will allude to. When it comes to investigations, and a matter has come up, we should be very clear. I know PAC is responsible for examination of accounts showing the appropriations of the sum voted by the House to meet the public expenditure and such other accounts laid before the House as the Committee may think fit. If you read the entire provision of this section it says “as the committee may think fit”. But, the bottom line is that PAC is supposed to examine accounts. I thought Hon. Maoka Maore had evidence that this watchdog committees are looking into matters which the Auditor General has not looked into. I was a Member of PAC in the last Parliament. When we wanted to investigate NYS 1, I remember it come out in the media and many of my colleagues wanted to grab and investigate it. My advice to them which carried the day and I thank God for it, was for us to ask the Auditor General to do a special audit. If a matter comes up and PAC and PIC wants to deal with it and it has not appeared in the Auditor General’s Report, the two Committees can ask for a special audit. One thing which we should also discourage especially from the oversight committees is dealing with rumors and allegations. They should deal with concrete recommendations for the Auditor General. My request is that the Liaison Committee should work on a good formula where if a matter is not in the Auditor General’s Report then a departmental committee should look into it. For example, we have the Ruaraka case which has been disposed of by the Departmental Committee on Lands because it has not been audited but just transacted."
}