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{
    "id": 975389,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/975389/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 157,
    "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": "investment programme of the Government is facing several monumental problems namely; the need to scale-up implementation of critical Big Four Agenda programmes and the need to resolve the question of pending bills. As you have seen in the media recently, a number of people have been complaining that they are yet to be paid by both the national Government and county governments. There is need to raise approximately Kshs1 trillion to complete the large stock of stalled projects. There are stalled projects all over the country which Kenyans are yet to derive any economic value from. Public investments were made in those projects, but we are unable to derive any economic benefits. Therefore, it is important as we move to the estimates, for the National Treasury to prioritise. It is also important for Chairs of Departmental Committees to note it is not just the question of paying pending bills, but prioritising the completion of stalled projects. Hon. Speaker, this includes those in Parliament where you are the Chair of the Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC). They may have not stalled, but some have taken an unduly long like our office block. This comes at a cost to Parliament and the country because PSC has to lease and hire office space from outside at commercial rates and that might be more expensive. It might be more prudent to complete many of those stalled projects so as to save a lot of Government expenditure going into those projects. On the question of public debt, we noticed this with concern and raised it with the CS and the National Treasury when they appeared before our Committee last week on Friday. One of the issues that came out quite clear from our BPS is that, in as much as we talk about fiscal consolidation, expenditure from both the national Government and other arms of Government seems to be going down. There are challenges with recurrent expenditure especially touching on personnel, pensions and interest payments under the Consolidated Fund Services (CFS), which is going up. If you look at the BPS, you will notice the figure has gone up to Kshs24 billion. This is largely on account of increased interest payments. Therefore, this is a concern to the Committee that the question of public debt remains a very important subject for this country to engage in. We noted that the increased interest payments, wages and salaries and pensions payments are increasing the recurrent expenditure for the Government in the Financial Year 2020/2021 to a figure of about Kshs574 billion. The effect of this is that we are shrinking not just money that is available for development for the national Government, but also the sharable revenue to be shared between the two levels of Government; the national Government and the county governments. You will notice that there has been no change in the amount of shareable revenue between the two levels of Government from the Kshs316.5 billion that was proposed last year. The same figure has been maintained this year. The risk with the continued growth of the amount going to the Consolidated Funds Services is not just on development, but will continue to shrink the sharable revenue between the two levels of Government. Therefore, there is need for the Government to take measures and ensure we not only reduce the fiscal deficit, but also reduce the amount we pay in terms of interest. We appreciate that last year, with the appointment of the new CS, he promised this House that he would take measures to ensure we reduce our commercial debt borrowing. However, if you look at the BPS that has been tabled before this House, these are some inconsistencies we are talking about. The figure proposed on page 92, you will realise the commercial financing for the current Financial Year 2019/2020 is about Kshs213.1 billion. The BPS that has just been tabled speaks to a figure of Kshs274.4 billion. 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."
}