Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 965046,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/965046/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 382,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kikuyu, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Kimani Ichung'wah",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1835,
        "legal_name": "Anthony Kimani Ichung'Wah",
        "slug": "anthony-kimani-ichungwah"
    },
    "content": " I did state that, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, as I began. As I was saying, this is the first Supplementary Budget for the FY 2019/2020 prepared on the backdrop of reviewed economic growth targets and upon realisation by the National Treasury that in view of the underperformance of the revenue estimates in the FY 2018/2019, the revenue estimates for this FY may not be realised and they were slightly overstated. But the National Treasury has taken measures to mop up revenues or surplus monies that were being held by parastatals and other MDAs to the tune of about Kshs78 billion. Therefore, what has been reduced in our targeted revenue by about Kshs100 billion has been mitigated by that mop up of surplus cash that was being held by parastatals. Because of time, I do not want to say much. This being the first Supplementary Budget, the only thing I wish to note is that it is a Budget that is incremental in nature, which is way out of the ordinary in a supplementary budget. We would expect that with the austerity measures that were expected to be taken; we would be reducing this Budget. In line with that endeavour, as we were told by the CS for Treasury and in view of the expected shortfall in revenue, in our BPS report last year, 2018/2019 and 2019/2020, we did express, as a Committee, our concerns on the realism of our revenue estimates. This remains to date. The Committee has expressed its concerns once again that, as much as we are reviewing this Budget upwards, we are still not very realistic with our revenue estimates. But we want to believe and trust what the National Treasury and the KRA are telling us. We have indeed, allocated additional resources to the KRA to enable them recruit additional staff and support them in reforms that would help them collect more revenue. They have promised that with the recruitment of almost 1,000 officers, they will be able to collect an additional Kshs50 billion that would go towards bridging the Budget deficit that we have this year. I do not want to go through all the policy and financial recommendations that are in the Report because I am sure Members have read the Report. Just to mention one or two things on what has been a debate on conforming with the legal requirements especially as pertains to the PFM Regulations, especially on programmes on budgets that should not be varied beyond 10 per cent. We have had an engagement with the National Treasury because we discovered that at least 37 programmes were beyond the 10 per cent threshold. As much as they argue that they have varying opinion from the AG who surprisingly participated in the formulation of the PFM Regulations, we have agreed with them that this will be the last Budget. Unless the regulations are amended and they get clarity from the AG on this particular aspect we should, as a House and a law-making body, adhere to the law as it is in our statutes and in our books. The other issue that is of concern is to do with Article 223 of the Constitution that I have spoken to at length. Again, there is an item of Kshs1.16 billion relating to the Ministry of Energy on the Loiyangalani-Turkana wind power project whose decision we have deferred until the next budget estimates, pending the finalisation of an audit report that the House did resolve at the time we were doing the Budget Estimates earlier this year. It ought to be tabled before this House and be considered by the relevant committees. Therefore, we have deferred that decision. There has also been concern on payments being made for things like insurance especially on donor-funded projects before budgetary allocations are made. A case in point is in the energy sector, with power transmission project by KETRACO from Loiyangalani-Marsabit-Isiolo- 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."
}