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{
    "id": 987931,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/987931/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 1185,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Suba South, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. John Mbadi",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 110,
        "legal_name": "John Mbadi Ng'ong'o",
        "slug": "john-mbadi"
    },
    "content": "want to be very candid. The office which is failing us is the Office of the Controller of Budget. We need to make an amendment to require provision of information to this House continuously. The Controller of Budget has got to do that under Article 223. We cannot continue with business as usual. It is Parliament that finds inappropriate use of Article 223. We should remember that this House rejected the payment for the Ruaraka land. The money was eventually spent and to- date, no one has made an attempt to have that money refunded. So, the decision of this House does not make sense. Those in the Executive make decisions as they wish. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, what is also surprising is that the National Treasury has a project management unit, which is supposed or expected to review all the projects before they are introduced in the budget. However, what you see are new projects being introduced even under the Supplementary Budget, which should not be the case. A Supplementary Budget is supposed to go towards those areas with inadequate provisions of funds or unforeseen circumstances like now the case we have before us. Finally, because I really want to be fair to others, one expected that with this crisis and with the pronouncements from the President, there will be a clear linkage between the Supplementary Budget and the fight against COVID-19. However, when you look at the entire Supplementary Budget, it is largely business as usual and very little attention to COVID-19. I think the Government should do what it says and say what it means to do. What we have seen in this Supplementary Budget is worrying. The Government should have put more money towards giving social interventions and giving people money. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, if you look at the poverty index of this country based on the 2019 Census, it is clear that we have 1.8 million households which are below the poverty line. If you give those households even Kshs2,000 each for four months, you will spend Kshs14.4 billion. That is what one would have expected the National Treasury to present before us. Let me finally say that on the issue of the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF), it should be understood why first we could not allow that amount to be deducted. If you look at the provisions in this Supplementary Budget, it is like Parliament was being targeted too much, including CDF being seen like a Parliament thing. But the truth is that Parliament is guided by law. You cannot provide funds in this current financial year less than the previous one. This amount was maintained as it was in the 2018/2019 Financial Year. Moreover, as my colleagues have said, some commitments have been made and, therefore, it was wrong to remove the Kshs10 billion. Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I support."
}