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{
    "id": 871821,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/871821/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 100,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Igembe North, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Maoka Maore",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13344,
        "legal_name": "Richard Maore Maoka",
        "slug": "richard-maore-maoka"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Speaker, for giving me the opportunity to contribute to this very important Bill. For many years, this has been the backbone of our financial system. The Bill wishes to do omnibus amendments to public finance management. Almost every sector or office is touched by this amendment. I would propose that when we go into the Committee stage at the Third Reading, Members should take into account that nearly all the offices that deal with finance are being affected: from the Central Bank of Kenya; the Cabinet Secretaries’ powers when it comes to public finance management; the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) and the planning they do for us to be able to do the financing; the Controller of Budget Office and the Auditor General’s Office. This is a second omnibus after the Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill. What is contained is very crucial for those Members who would wish to push in reforms on various sectors of our financial systems. I was gossiping with the Leader of the Majority Party after he tabled the PFM (Amendment) Bill. We said that most of the Members in this House will have a fight with the Budget because of mismanagement of public finances in the last three or four years. We are being affected as the 12th Parliament when it comes to new projects. There is this issue of financing the old projects before we touch on the new ones. I think it is wise if we can strike a balance of 50/50. Fifty per cent should be for the new projects and the other 50 per cent should go for other projects which should be staggered for the next three years. For most Members, the first one year is over. We are going to the second year and there are no new Members who can say that they have initiated a new project in their various constituencies. So, when it comes to this public finance management system, when those mega projects were conceived, the assumption was that there was money then to complete them. Apparently, we are short of cash and then we are caught up in this dilemma. We need to ensure that people run public offices the way they run their private business. If it was a private business we were running, by now it would be filing bankruptcy proceedings and that is not fair. We, therefore, want Members to take this PFM (Amendment) Bill seriously. Those are my few contributions."
}