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{
    "id": 935847,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/935847/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 612,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Gatanga, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Joseph Nduati",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13338,
        "legal_name": "Joseph Nduati Ngugi",
        "slug": "joseph-nduati-ngugi-2"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for giving me an opportunity to make my contribution. At the outset, I say that I support this Bill. It is very important that we protect the small players from the big players. You know the way supermarkets operate is very unique. You will find a supplier has brought goods worth a lot of money and he has nowhere to take them. When the buyer realises that, of course, he will take advantage. We have seen it happen within supermarkets. When it comes to payments, they are usually delayed. Most suppliers in this country are not paid within the stipulated time, maybe, of 30 days. Most are paid within 90 to 150 days, which is a very long time. Sometimes, those payments are really delayed. The big players and the supermarkets have come up with new forms of frustrating the small players. When it comes to promotions, they do not pay for it. That one is paid by the small players. Even today when you walk to a supermarket, those shelves you see used to be given by the big players for free but today you rent them. You still have to pay a worker to stock that particular shelf. If the supermarket is operating for a long time, maybe 24 hours, you have four or five workers, which is very expensive considering the profit margins. So, we need to come up with a way of how we can protect those people. When it comes to professionals, it is important to also protect the consumer. If you look at what happens within many professional associations, they are very protective. The fees are guided by those particular professional organisations. A good example is the Board of Registrations of Architects and Quantity Surveyors, where they stipulate the fees you are supposed to pay the architect, the engineer or even the quantity surveyor. However, when you introduce competition because of the technology we have, those fees can come from 10 per cent because of technology even to 3 per cent. It is happening. So, we need to allow competition when it comes to the price and also to the ideas. Why would you pick one person especially when we talk about government projects? You can pick a particular architect and he gives you poor service. What will be your remedy? Let us allow competition. A good example which I wanted to point out and which has really frustrated our people in the construction industry is the categorisation of contractors in this country by the National Construction Authority. They are categorised from NCA1 to NCA8, where in NCA1, you are 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."
}