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{
    "id": 975411,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/975411/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 179,
    "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": "passed a lot of legislations that have created a number of institutions that are yet to be operationalised. On the expenditure reduction efforts, the policy of cutting the Budget by a certain percentage across the board is not an effective way of expenditure control. There should be critical reforms in expenditure that will isolate wasteful expenditure and ensure that only key expenditure needs are funded. You will realise that when the in-year budget cuts come — and we are likely to get one in the next few weeks, the second Supplementary Budget. This is something we have expressed concern about, that we should desist from in-year budget reviews because it points to a question of credibility of the budget process when we have to revise the budget every year, at least, almost on a quarterly basis. You remember last year we did the first revision of the 2019/2020 Budget almost two months after we passed the same. It, therefore, creates not just credibility questions, but makes it very difficult to have effective control of what is being cut. That is why I recommend not only desisting from expenditure cuts on development, but also identifying those wasteful areas. The Departmental Committees will play a critical role not just in the wasteful areas, but even in areas where there is corruption. In our Liaison Committee meeting this morning, we alluded to that fact that our Departmental Committees need to make use of the Public Accounts Committee and Public Investments Committee reports. If you find MDAs that have become wasteful or where money is being misappropriated, you penalise them at the time when you are appropriating the resources to them. That, by 30th April 2020 when the Budget is submitted, it should clearly indicate projects that will be funded through the Sports Fund and the funds be directly applied to those projects. We noted with concern - and it is unfortunate that the Chair of the Departmental Committee on Sports, Tourism and Culture is not here but the Vice-Chair is here… The Chair has come in. It is still not clear what projects are being funded through the Sports Fund. That is why we said they should indicate the specific projects that will be funded through the Sports Fund. That, the process of filing a vacant constitutional, statutory or any critical senior leadership position in the public financial and budgetary sectors, including the Office of the Auditor-General, should be expedited before the incumbent leaves office to ensure continuity and performance of critical roles provided in the Constitution and the statutes. You realise that the country is yet to appoint a substantive Auditor-General after Edward Ouko’s term ended in August last year. It is now almost a year because we are in the month of March. It has been almost seven months since the exit of the Auditor-General. The Public Investments Committee and the Public Accounts Committee of this House that are the major consumers of the Auditor-General’s reports may not be able to carry on with their work. I had an engagement with the Chair of the Public Investments Committee. There are special audits that they have requested and a number of ministries and MDAs whose audits have been done have nobody to bring them to Parliament because constitutionally, it is only the Auditor-General who can sign off audit reports. Therefore, we are also not able to consume and make use of the audit reports that have already been done. Therefore, we recommend that for those kinds of offices, the process of replacement of such officers should be expedited. Maybe, if we had started recruiting an Auditor-General from the month of May, by August when Edward Ouko left office, there should have been a substantive holder of that office. The last policy recommendations is that to support ongoing reduction in the fiscal deficit, the borrowing strategy should entail a reliable net domestic borrowing target for 2020/2021 and the medium term, and a commercial debt borrowing target consistent with the 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."
}