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{
    "id": 975227,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/975227/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 354,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Dr.) Zani",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13119,
        "legal_name": "Agnes Zani",
        "slug": "agnes-zani"
    },
    "content": "Madam Temporary Speaker, this is a very comprehensive Bill and it covers all the areas. I like the way it factors in other bodies and commissions that are involved in the fight against corruption. Just going through what it entails in terms of lifestyle audit, we have all issues, for example, about unexplained wealth, issuing of search warrants, making misleading statements and the penalties for doing this; the discharge of interim freezing order, the explanation that we can have members of the public initiating this process; that we can refer these matters to the Directorate of Public of Prosecution s (DPP) at the end of it all so that further action can be taken, all these are very key. Madam Temporary Speaker, Part Three of the Bill deals with Deferred Prosecution Agreements very comprehensively.The Bill then deals with Part Four, which contains the miscellaneous provisions. Just looking through the various key clauses, I want to zero down to Clause 4, which is clearly talking about the circumstances under which a lifestyle audit may be carriedout. They include in Clause 4(1)(a) and (b)- “A lifestyle audit may be carried out if- (a) There are reasons to believe that a public officer or State officer is living beyond an officer’s lawfully obtained and reported income; (b) The public officer or State Officer is unable to account for the source of income;” Madam Temporary Speaker, you will remember sometime back even when the vetting exercise was being done within the various forces, some people realized that they were unable to account for their wealth, and some of them took their lives. That is indicative and the beauty of such a process is that this money can be traced. I discovered that that we have a very good system of transfer of money and tracking that money through the banks and wherever it is put. This money trail can always be checked and you can always follow it through. It is very difficult to expend money and not have somebody follow through and identify exactly where you put that money into. Madam Temporary Speaker, even for the impeachment trials that we have had on the Floor of this Senate, we have heard of cases where people gave money to their relatives. That money can be traced because we have a whole regime of systems that interlink us. A person’s information can be found because they registered for HudumaNamba. When you open a bank account, you also provide information. It is very easy to cross-check. This Bill also seeks to allow immediate family members to be investigated in order to find out whether money was put into their accounts. I hope that we will not have a lacuna in terms of what can happen. Maybe Sen. Farhiya should think about the loopholes in the established marital connection. However, since polyandry is allowed, you could find that there are other family members, for instance wives, who are unknown especially under customary marriage. When I was reading the part about the immediate family, I thought that it needs to be elaborate because we have other people away from the usual family setup that we know. In cases where, for example, a public state officer has misappropriated money, a lifestyle audit should be done. How is the lifestyle audit to be conducted? There are various bodies that this Bill gives power to undertake the lifestyle audit. These are well The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}