Billow Kerrow

All parliamentary appearances

Entries 1351 to 1360 of 1385.

• 25 Apr 2006 in National Assembly: Mr. Speaker, Sir, to begin with, I seek your guidance regarding page 416 of the Recurrent Expenditure Estimates. Under Head 881, Legislature, Item 2110100, Basic Salaries, Permanent Employees--- view
• 25 Apr 2006 in National Assembly: Yes, Mr. Speaker, Sir. I am referring to the first Item, Basic Salaries. It says: "Additional funds are required to cater for the salaries of Ministers and Assistant Ministers." That figure, if you turn to page 414, is Kshs157 million. That is the figure the Minister is trying to transfer from the National Assembly back to the Treasury. My question is: Who is supposed to pay the basic salaries of the Ministers? Is it Parliament or the Treasury? I am seeking your guidance. Could you clarify this? view
• 25 Apr 2006 in National Assembly: Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir, for the clarification. It is just that the use of the words "basic salary' causes a bit of anxiety. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I have no problem with this amendment. I support it. But I need to raise just two points very quickly. One, I think the preparation of Budgets, if I may use the words of my colleague here, is not rocket science. It should be as accurate as possible, so that we do not have wide variations. The kind of amendments being made to some Items, for example Kshs597 million being removed from pensions ... view
• 20 Apr 2006 in National Assembly: Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, clearly, the Minister is oblivious of the fact that with regard to security contracts, it is not just the provisions in law that are adequate. The procurement law that was passed by this House last year merely provide that we use restricted tendering or, in a case of emergency, we use single-sourcing, et cetera . However, what the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) recommended, which was adopted by this House three days ago - when we were discussing the Anglo Leasing Report - is that, the Government accepts establishment by this House of a Parliamentary Committee that ... view
• 20 Apr 2006 in National Assembly: Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. The Supplementary Estimates have become a necessary ritual for this House that we have to go through and approve. However, this House is always taken for granted that we have to go through two very voluminous books in one afternoon to approve a requested additional expenditure of Kshs20 billion. view
• 20 Apr 2006 in National Assembly: Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, how satisfactorily can we do that work when we have only one afternoon to go through and understand all those changes, digest them and contribute in terms of scrutinising and approving that expenditure? That is indeed a very tall order for this House and this is the ritual that is being done every year. In my view, this whole concept of Supplementary Estimates, particularly to the tune of Kshs20 billion and so forth, is to undermine this House and difficult to undertake. In the public perception, Members of Parliament are responsible for supervising or overseeing ... view
• 20 Apr 2006 in National Assembly: Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. As I was saying, the Ministry of Finance has, in fact, an enormous responsibility to ensure that money voted for by this House is spent properly as voted for by the House. Kenyans are becoming increasingly concerned with the failure of our successive governments to utilise money in a manner that has been voted for by this House. I think that Ministry needs to take that responsibility much more seriously. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, in these Supplementary Estimates the Minister wants us to approve the re-allocation from the Development Vote of almost ... view
• 20 Apr 2006 in National Assembly: Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. Development is our priority and, therefore, it becomes very difficult when you find that every year, money which we vote for 616 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES April 20, 2006 Development Expenditure, when it reaches April, Supplementary Estimates are required to divert some of the money back into Recurrent Expenditure. So, in these Supplementary Estimates given to us, we are being asked to divert or transfer Kshs7.6 billion from the Development Expenditure into the Recurrent Expenditure.. That money is coming out of very important Ministries. It is coming out from the Ministry of Health, Ministry of ... view
• 20 Apr 2006 in National Assembly: Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I apologise for that. We are unable to account for our resources because money is being misappropriated in this country. It becomes very difficult for us, therefore, to understand whether this Government appreciates priorities, which are contained in the Economic Recovery Strategy Paper (ERSP). When it comes to the issue of priorities, I would like to give another example. I accept the Kshs8.6 billion that is being voted in the Recurrent Expenditure for the Office of the President because Kshs6.3 billion is for purposes of purchase of relief food. However, if this Government is ready ... view
• 20 Apr 2006 in National Assembly: Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I was talking about the fact that the Minister for Planning and National Development said that the Ministry of Water and Irrigation has done a good job; yet clearly, there is no money being allocated to that Ministry. We spent billions of shillings supplying water to people in the ASAL areas. That was money spent in a worthless effort to try and provide water through emergency. We need money to be allocated to this Ministry so that they can invest in boreholes. We want to see that in the Supplementary Estimates. There are many parts of ... view