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{
    "id": 964786,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/964786/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 122,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Molo, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Kuria Kimani",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13435,
        "legal_name": "Francis Kuria Kimani",
        "slug": "francis-kuria-kimani"
    },
    "content": " I thank you, Hon. Speaker. Our Constitution gives independent commissions power and sovereignty to protect the interests of the people of Kenya. One such office is the Office of the Auditor-General. The challenge that has been mentioned in this Report is lack of appointment of the Auditor-General in time. It provides a vacuum. Unfortunately, this is not just in the Office of the Auditor-General. If you look at the other independent commission, like the NLC, you will find that the time when they are appointed and the time they report to office, not considering there is even time for court cases, denies Kenyans a chance to be served by those commissions. The SRC for a very long time was also without commissioners. So, this is a call to us as Members of Parliament. Maybe, we should consider amending the parent Acts that give authority to those commissions so that the process of recruitment of commissioners and independent office holders is done before the deadline passes. This is so that we do not have a situation where we are saying Kenyans cannot get answers to their questions because we do not have a substantive Auditor-General. We should not forget the importance of the Office of the Auditor-General. If you remember, the sharing of revenue is based on the approved audited accounts. The audited accounts can only be approved by appending the signature of the Auditor-General. So, this is a call to the Executive and all the appointing authorities. There are many qualified and deserving Kenyans who can fit in those offices. Some of these commissions, like the Office of the Auditor- General, by the time you are appointing the office holder, you know for sure that in the next two or three years, the term will expire and it cannot be extended. Therefore, we call upon the Executive as the appointing authority and the CSs not to create a lacuna. Remember also that those commissions are the biggest spenders of our Budget. Most of the money that we are even trying to apportion through the Supplementary Estimates goes to those independent commissions. If they do not have substantive office holders, how does that affect service delivery? I keep saying that the Government should borrow a lot from the private sector and corporates. A company like Safaricom is appointing a CEO who will report next year. The appointment has already been made. For us, an office as substantive as that of the Auditor- General has not been filled, even when we knew for sure three years ago that the term of the office holder would come to an end and it cannot be extended. The question of us asking questions to CSs and not being answered is a thorny one. I raised a petition on the Floor of this House about the plight of the people of Timsales and, up to now, there is no response. Some of it can be attributed to the CS not being present. We will have the CSs making decisions that are not in tandem with things on the ground or with the real 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."
}