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{
    "id": 967930,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/967930/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 550,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Ugunja, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Opiyo Wandayi",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2960,
        "legal_name": "James Opiyo Wandayi",
        "slug": "james-opiyo-wandayi"
    },
    "content": "pending bills. It happens, as I have said, as a result of inadequate or delayed Ex-Chequer releases. Secondly, we have the phenomenon of white elephants. If you go to the countryside, you will be confronted with very many projects that have either stalled or are progressing at a snail’s pace. This is not a demonstration of prudent use of public funds. Projects, once they are conceived and there is adequate budgetary provision, they need to be implemented within the specified timelines. That is when the country or the public can derive value for money. It is a no- brainer. The third issue we continue to face as we work as a Committee is the perennial lack of documentation. This is a matter that needs to be addressed more seriously. We have flagged this issue before and, in fact, recommended it for further action by other agencies. We do not see action being taken. It has become a common phenomenon that accounting officers fail to avail the necessary requisite documents for the expenditures they have incurred on behalf of the public. Whenever those documents are required by the officers of the Auditor-General, one year or so down the road, those documents resurface. They resurface at our Committee when they are no longer of use. This is because whoever has got use for those documents is the Auditor– General. When he demands for them, they are not availed. They resurface when we summon the respective accounting officers before us. This is a matter that needs to be addressed very seriously. I want to challenge the appointing authority, in this case Mr. President. That in cases where we have raised this matter in reports, and we have singled out specific officers who have continued to fail or have refused to produce these documents for audit purposes. The President should take the necessary action and, if possible send them home. The other issue that is recurrent is the matter of accounting officers continuing to violate the laws governing procurement. The laws are very clear as to when you can use direct procurement method and when you can go for open tendering process. What we have seen is a situation where accounting officers conveniently choose when to go for direct procurement, restrictive tendering process and when to opt for open tendering process. This is done so conveniently so that in the final analysis the public fails to derive the value for money that they are entitled to. If you look at our report, which is more than 100 pages, you will see a pattern. Those agencies or state departments or ministries that are involved in more development projects that entail a lot of procurement have got more serious audit queries, whereas those ones that do not engage so much in capital projects the audit queries diminish. That goes to tell you that this is something that happens as a result of people’s conscious decision to break the laws so that they can benefit themselves or others unfairly. We have raised some specific issues in this report. One of them is the issue of a special scholarship programme in the Ministry of Education. There is a strange scholarship programme which is neither backed by any law, regulation nor any form of policy. It benefits children of the so-called prominent persons who have died. This is a country governed on the basis of rule of law. So, even if the idea is noble or there is a justification to pay school fees for children of prominent Kenyans, whatever prominent means, it should have been on the basis of a policy which is developed, or on the basis of some law or some regulation. As we speak, this so-called scholarship is being abused. In fact, when the accounting officer for the Ministry of Education came before us, we got the impression that this scholarship is not even being driven from the ministry itself; that indeed there are external forces driving it. 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."
}