PM'S CLASH WITH MPS

Prime Minister Raila Odinga on Tuesday clashed with MPs when he told them to stop supervising the government and let the Executive do its job.

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He had told the MPs that their tendency to summon government officials over procurement issues was delaying implementation of development projects and they should leave the supervisory role to him.

The PM rekindled the turf wars between Parliament and the Executive, saying Parliament’s role should be limited to oversight and not government supervision.

Frequent inquiries

Speaking at a meeting between MPs and the Ministry of Roads, Mr Odinga said the frequent inquiries by Parliament into government procurement was the cause of the slow pace of development, even in cases where money had already been allocated.

“The Legislature must never be an impediment to government procurement. Parliament’s role is oversight. The bureaucracy must spend that (annual Budget) money. If it doesn’t spend, there will be no development,” the Prime Minister told the MPs at the four-hour meeting held at Nairobi’s Intercontinental Hotel.

An example is the Sh135 million contract for buying the Enterprise Resource Planning System (ERPS) by the Kenya Medical Supplies Agency. The Public Procurement Oversight Authority (PPOA) ruled that Kemsa had no capacity to procure the system and had the Kenya ICT Board do the job. The matter came to Parliament through Mr Charles Nyamai (Kitui West, Narc).

There was also a row over the Kenya Ferry Services importing expensive spare parts. The House Transport Committee investigated the matter. Still, the Public Accounts Committee also scrutinised the procurement of Volkswagen Passats and grilled Finance minister Uhuru Kenyatta. The PM added: “The work of supervision is vested in the Office of the Prime Minister.”

Mr Odinga insisted that the tendency of MPs to ask questions about government contracts had often created doubt leading to suspension of procurement processes by the PPOA. This in turn led to delays in project implementation. He told the MPs to forward their queries to his office and not sabotage the country’s development agenda.

With the Inspectorate of State Corporations and the Efficiency Monitoring Unit based in his office, the PM said, it was superfluous for Parliament to keep on raising queries on the Executive’s spending because it had no “expertise to investigate”. At this point, the close to 80 MPs grumbled loudly, protesting at the PM’s sentiments.

The Prime Minister said Parliament ought to complement the Executive and should not be seen as a barrier to the procurement process. As soon as the PM sat down, Ms Martha Karua (Gichugu, Narc Kenya) insisted on responding to the PM’s remarks, but the event’s moderator, Roads minister Franklin Bett, said her time would come.

When she got her chance to speak, she complained that MPs had not attended the meeting “to be lectured” on how to perform their oversight function. “We’ll continue performing our oversight function the best way we know how... we do not appreciate it when it appears that we are being pushed away from doing our work,” she said.

The Gichugu MP, a former Cabinet minister, said Parliament had competent legal officers who guide MPs on the boundaries between oversight and supervision. House Speaker Kenneth Marende, who was not at the meeting when the PM made the remarks, defended Parliament’s role in a democracy. “You as a permanent secretary, a minister or an assistant minister must come to terms with the reality that the wheels of democracy will continue turning,” he said.

“MPs will continue to ask questions; if you don’t do things transparently, they’ll rush to the floor of the House.” The Speaker said Parliament was crucial in the country’s governance. Dr Boni Khalwale (Ikolomani, New Ford-Kenya), the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, defended MPs saying the PM ought to be “tolerant enough” when it comes to the duties of Parliament.

He said if the PM thought the time for ministers to respond to questions on procurement in the House was too short, the PM could as well expound on such cases through the Prime Minister’s Question Time — the 45-minute slot every Wednesday when he has his day in Parliament, if only “to retain the honour of Parliament.”

“The principle of separation of powers means that the President and the Prime Minister must leave the legislature to maintain the role of scrutiny of government projects,” Dr Khalwale said. He added: “We’ll keep on turning the screw on the Prime Minister, the President and the ministers, until we kick out the cancer of corruption from this country.”

Dr Khalwale said Parliament, and more so his team, relied on professional reports from the office of the Controller and Auditor General and thus, they should not be victimised for lacking investigative muscle.

Seriously shocked

He said he was “seriously shocked” by the PM’s remarks and told his colleagues that if they join the government, they shouldn’t “forget the crucial role played by Parliament.” Some Sh104 billion has been allocated for the development of the country’s roads in the next fiscal year (2010-2011).

Each constituency will receive Sh27 million — Sh8 million more than this year’s allocation of Sh19 million. The meeting was called to get MPs and the ministry’s technical officers working together with respect to the use of the money.