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{
    "id": 965759,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/965759/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 265,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kathiani, WDM-K",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Robert Mbui",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1750,
        "legal_name": "Robert Mbui",
        "slug": "robert-mbui"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Speaker, for this opportunity. The National Treasury is actually like an engine in the running of Government because without funds you cannot do anything. So, it is imperative that they get organised. You have seen in the recent past that the National Treasury has put this country in a very bad place. We have a huge debt that goes against what this House has proposed. There are these arbitrary changes in the budgets. Going forward, it is important that the National Treasury be very careful, when it does its budgets and the plans for this nation. This Report has a reduction in Recurrent Expenditure and an increase in Development Expenditure, which is basically good. In total, there is an average increase of Kshs74 billion. It is only four months since this House passed the Budget. The things that are coming out within those four months are making me wonder how much planning was done before the Budget was presented to this House. How is it possible that within four months, we are already looking at making serious changes? We are already on Supplementary Estimates. There is already a plan for other Supplementary Estimates as we move forward. The Committee has done a commendable job in terms of looking at the Report and the proposals. It has done an excellent job. Going forward, my proposal is that before they present the Budget, let them sit with each department. Let them make sure that the proposals they are putting forward for the nation are very clear. I know there is a lot of excitement, and my colleagues also want to contribute to this debate. I want to finish by saying that the recommendations that have been given by the Committee are good. The idea of creating an independent debt management office is critical and long overdue. You saw when we were dealing with the issue of raising the debt ceiling, we realised that the formulation that was there before had been abused by the National Treasury. They had already borrowed beyond what they were expected to borrow. It is important to have that office. The Committee has proposed that by 2020, there should be such an office. That is really commendable. It has to be done because it is important to look at the debt ceiling of the nation and the amount of debt that the country goes into. Of course, there is the completion of stalled projects. There is an observation that there are many projects that have not been completed. It is important that all these projects are completed because every time the National Treasury gets money, they come up with new projects, and some of them are not completed. There is also a proposal that once this Supplementary Budget is passed, the National Treasury should load it onto the IFMIS within 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."
}