Key bill on devolution to be ready, Githae
Finance Minister Njeru Githae has said that the pending Bill that will guide government spending in the devolved system will be ready for presidential assent before the end of this month.
Speaking to the Nation on Monday, the Minister said the Public Financial Management Bill, which has been in abeyance because Parliament missed the constitutional deadline for its enactment, was crucial for fiscal discipline both at the national and county levels.
“Without this Bill and the County Governments Bill, and I told MPs very well, then there will be no devolution…everyone knows the implications if these two Bills are not passed,” said Mr Githae.
The two Bills are three months overdue. Parliament was supposed to enact them on February 27 this year, but the House failed.
Attempts to get the 148 MPs required to ensure that the deadline is shifted have failed repeatedly, after MPs failed to show up in the House forcing the government to put the deadline extension calls on hold.
“I will not bring it unless the MPs agree to come and support it,” said the Finance Minister in a telephone interview.
The vow came as the minister revealed that he’d be reading his Budget Statement on June 14, that is, Thursday next week.
It also came as the chairman of the House Budget Committee, Mr Elias Mbau, said that his team will table the final national budget for the financial year 2012-2013 in the House on Tuesday.
“The Finance minister tabled a draft Budget. We went round the country for public hearings and received memoranda on what needs to be done on the budget. We’re now ready with the final report,” Mr Mbau told the Nation on Monday on phone.
The Budget Committee report will then be discussed on Wednesday and the final figures approved by the House.
It is then that the Finance Minister will be expected to bring the Appropriations Bill –the legal instrument that once approved will allow the government to access the money provided for in the Budget.
“We expect the Appropriations Bill to be tabled telling us the taxation measures and the measures in place to raise revenues. The minister will also tell us government policy regarding spending,” said Mr Mbau, about the ministerial statement on the Budget –the equivalent of the Budget Speech that the minister will make in the House.
Mr Mbau said his committee’s role was to continue pushing the Executive and the government-led House Business Committee, to marshal the numbers, get MPs to extend the deadline, and thereafter speed up the approval of the Bills in the House.
For now, Mr Mbau believes, there’s no major problem, with the PFM Bill and the County Governments Bill, because once the House unlocks the legal stalemate, then the legislative process will be done.
In Parliament, preparations are underway to ensure that the ministerial statement on the national Budget is made in the newly-refurbished chambers. The 350-seater debating chamber, those in the know in the House said, will be inaugurated next Tuesday.
