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{
    "id": 862565,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/862565/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 234,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kipkelion East, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Joseph Limo",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1915,
        "legal_name": "Joseph Kirui Limo",
        "slug": "joseph-kirui-limo"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I rise to second this Bill. This is a very important Bill and it is an overall framework which will govern the way procurement is done in this country. It is actually a Bill which seeks to guide how contracts in this country will be drawn, the contents of the contract documents and the way those particular contracts will be executed. This Bill repeals the current Government Contracts Act which is old. Remember that after the new Constitution came into being, there were certain Acts of Parliament which were given priority in terms of being replaced and, therefore, they had constitutional timelines. But there are many others which do not have constitutional timelines and, therefore, it is upon this House to continuously do amendments, repeal some provisions in order to conform to the current Constitution 2010. The new Bill also seeks to align the management of Government Contracts to the Constitution, the PFM Act, the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act of 2015 and the Public Private Partnership Act of 2013. This Government Contracts Bill is very important because it provides that all Government contracts must be made in writing. We have heard of so many contractors going round in the county government. This Bill will therefore cover for all contracts both in the national and county governments. All Government contracts must be made in writing and this is according to this Bill. We have heard of contractors doing contracts with a word of mouth. The implication of doing contracts with Government without following the laid down procedures and having them put in writing has been causing uncontrolled build-up of pending bills. You will find a Government officer either in the national or county government ordering a contractor to do a job which is not in the Budget and there is no funding for it. Therefore, by the end of the financial year, the allocation for those particular contracts will have been exhausted and there will be no funding to pay for them. This Bill stipulates that all contracts must be made in writing. It also provides that all the contracts entered to by the accounting officers, must also be signed by the Attorney General when they go beyond a certain threshold, in this case Kshs5 billion. For the county governments, they will be signed in the same way by the county attorneys. This will cure the haphazard award of contracts which exposes the Government. This is a very important clause in this particular Bill. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}