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{
    "id": 863632,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/863632/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 119,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kitui Central, WDM-K",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Makali Mulu",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1955,
        "legal_name": "Benson Makali Mulu",
        "slug": "benson-makali-mulu"
    },
    "content": "As a House, we need to be serious. If we want to help this country, we must do things correctly. We are talking about imprest. The fact that somebody said that this matter was resolved, I agree that we need to get it out of the Report. But the kind of explanations I have heard here, as a person who has a bit of experience in this area, I am not convinced. At what point does the Auditor-General come to look at the reports of ministries? Does he come immediately after accounts are closed? He comes after six months. When you get imprest, it is very clear that immediately you come back from your trip or wherever you had gone, you have only 48 hours to surrender. So, when the House starts saying that imprest is taken close to a financial year, are we telling Kenyans that people travel for six or 10 months? Is that what we are telling Kenyans? The Auditor-General does not come immediately. So, as we support the amendment, it is important that, as Members of Parliament, we adhere to the financial regulations. The truth of the matter is that the issue of imprest in the country is major. We need to help the Public Accounts Committee to punish elements in Government who do not surrender imprest. The arguments being put forth do not make sense to me. Let people surrender imprest before the Auditor-General comes in to audit an institution’s books. On pending bills, with all due respect to my Chairman – this is part of the thing he is harassing us on all over – let us help this House sort out the issue of pending bills. Loose statements that are not strong will not help this country. I agree that the way the issue of pending bills is structured might be too punitive to Dr. Thugge, who I also know because I am in the Budget and Appropriations Committee and we interact. But Dr. Thugge must know that even at personal level, you do not incur expenses if you have no money. You cannot go to a shop and say you are given a shirt when you are not paying or telling the owner of the shirt when you will pay. We need to be serious in terms of financial management."
}