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{
    "id": 975410,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/975410/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 178,
    "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": "operationalisation of the Judiciary Fund. We must ensure that the Judiciary and Parliament remain independent. In relation to fines, forfeitures and user fees collected by the Judiciary, we have recommended that for user fees — these are the fines and forfeitures — that are collected by the Judiciary in our courts for services rendered, be retained and applied at source to enable the operationalisation of the Judiciary Fund, in line with Article 173 of the Constitution and similar to other Government institutions that generate and retain A-in-A revenues. Hon. Speaker, you remember last year — when the economy was under a lot of pressure in terms of revenues — the Government was able to mop up almost Kshs78 billion from parastatals that were able to collect A-in-A. A case in point is the Communications Authority (CA) that had almost Kshs5 billion which they released to the Exchequer. Therefore, the same should be allowed — as the case is for CA and other parastatals like Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) — for the Judiciary to keep what they collect. That will ease the pressure on the Judiciary for financial autonomy. Hon. Speaker, the Committee also recommends that we enforce commitment control. The MDAs should submit a quarterly projection of details of commitments through sub-programmes and projects to the National Treasury. Treasury should ensure that its cash releases are aligned to those specific commitments. If you engage with the Departmental Committee Chairs and MDAs, they will tell you that one of the major challenges they have been facing has been the release of Exchequer. That is why we are recommending that every quarter, a quarterly projection of commitments is sent to the National Treasury, which will release the Exchequer to the MDAs so that they can implement their projections. Hon. Speaker, another policy recommendation is that pending bills that have been established as legally payable and are above Kshs500 million, be settled through a long-term debt instrument including establishment, where necessary, of debt swaps for inter-governmental bills. You realise that there are Government agencies that owe each other. Some are not able to implement their projects because they are owed by other Government departments. We would encourage them to do debt swaps in order to ensure that we have a long-term instrument that would help the Government to settle the large pending bills that are unpayable. His Excellency the President did give directions last year for settlement of pending bills but largely, the pending bills that have been paid are the small pending bills — those below and around Kshs100 million — to the youth and women enterprises. The large pending bills are still unpaid. A case in point is the court judgements that we are told are running into hundreds of billions of shillings that are yet to be settled. In order to enhance transparency and accountability, beginning 1st July 2020, the net Exchequer issues should be published in the website of the National Treasury at the end of the month and this be by ward, programme and project. This is to ensure that Parliament and also members of the public are able to see how much has been released and to what ministry or programme so that, if you have a road or hospital in your constituency or village that ought to be constructed, you will be able to see from the website that the money for the particular project has been released. That will not only enhance transparency on the side of the Government, but also social audits by members of the public and other institutions, including civil society organisations. Hon. Speaker, the seventh policy recommendation is that adequate funds should be provided for full operationalisation of institutions of public finance and, in particular, the recent institutions that were created through various pieces of legislation. You realise that we have 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."
}