We are aware that the bond is already out there. In fact, by the admission of the Minister – through this very important Bill, it is indicated on page one, in the memorandum to Parliament that the opportunities taken to validate the issuance, just to say to validate the issuance of bond notes is an indication and admission by the Minister by the Ministry that the introduction and issuance of the bond note hitherto has been invalid. That is the language and I am simply doing statutory interpretation of what is already contained in the Statute and we are simply saying this because in terms of Section 134, Parliament’s law making responsibilities are not supposed to be delegated at any given point in time which argument was made so ably and so effectively and so smoothly.
This is very important Hon. Speaker to say in future, we expect our Ministers to respect Parliament function of law making. If we had been approached by the Minister before the bond note had been issued out, we were going to give the wisdom to the Minister to avoid the obvious pitfalls we are not seeing when it comes to the way the bond note is being issued out and also is being doled out in the circumstances.
It is very important that we follow our Constitution, we follow our law. I know that there has been an argument to say by using the temporary Presidential Powers Act and those regulations; we were on all fours in terms of the law. Certainly, not because there is a limited framework within which we are supposed to use that Act and that law. What we did was an abuse, what we did was to use an inappropriate instrument for an appropriate responsibility that was supposed to be transacted.
Let me just quickly say that there are hygiene issues that have to be dealt with so that we are able to assist the Minister and the Government to move forward when we want to make sure that things happen in a particular context. You are aware that we managed to dig out our minerals to the tune of US$15b, now we did not manage to account for that US$15b. If we cannot manage to account for what we dig can we account for what we print? That is a fundamental question, it is a hygiene issue to say if we have not been able to account for certain things; if we have not been able to be responsible as a Government, can we therefore become responsible in our law making, responsible in our introduction of this currency. It is a fundamental question; it is a hygiene issue that has to be dealt with.
You are aware that when you transact a resource, particularly a currency, it is a transaction of promise, it is transaction of confidence. Is that confidence sufficiently stimulated in the economy, certainly not? Is that promise evidently there, certainly not. I can tell you that not just Members of Parliament or Ministers but ordinary citizens have a deficit of confidence in the bond note. Now, when you do not have confidence in what you are transacting, the net effect is that you have now erected a false accumulation model. When a person gets a bond note, they are not going to keep that bond note for purposes of storing value or transacting value. What they are simply going to do is make sure that they transact it to the next person then they look at property and other immovables which are real measures of value. That is very important because as you go forward, you are now going to be transacting fiction and we do not want the Minister to come here with a very important law making responsibility so that we come here to legislate fiction. That fiction is going to play out and is going to have a boomerang effect on the economy as we go forward.
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