Departmental Committee on Finance and National Planning Scrutinizes Legislative Proposals
The Departmental Committeee on Finance and National Planning today met with Hon. Geoffrey Ruku and Hon. John Mbadi to deliberate on their legislative proposals that are before the Committee for consideration.
The Public Procurement and Asset Disposal (Amendment) Bill sponsored by Hon. Ruku is on the amendment of the Principal Act to help in bringing on board more Constitutional values and principles to ensure fairness in all Procurement proceedings.
The Hon. Kuria Kimani-led Committee noted that the Bill limits the term of the Director General under the Public Procurement Regulatory Board (PPRB) to a 5- year renewable once, while that of the heads of independent Constitutional Offices provides for a 8 year non-renewable term.
In his submission, Hon. Ruuku explained that the amendments are intended to facilitate the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority to get rid of unethical Public Procurement in the public service in order to enforce professionalism and ethical practices.
Later in the afternoon, Hon. John Mbadi presented his proposal on amendments to the Public Finance Management Act. The principal object of the Bill is to provide for a more stringent procedure for incurring urgent or unforeseen expenditure pursuant to Article 223 of the Constitution.
According to the legislator who also serves as the Chair of the Public Accounts Committee , the Article is too general and has been abused severally since any money spent under the Article is not budgeted for.
Members were concerned if there should be specified items that should be funded under the Article, and how such requests should be handled during times such as sine die.
The matter as to whether there is a proviso for what happens when a relevant committee considering such proposals under the Article reject the proposal was also deliberated.
Hon. Mbadi promised to get back to the Committee after holding further deliberations with legal professionals over the issues raised by the Committee Members.
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