There are a lot of quibbles regarding how much Members of the County Assembly (MCAs) have been spending over the years. The Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) clearly stipulates that the average sitting allowance an MCA should get is 80,000 shillings, but that hasn’t been the case.
A report released by Controller of Budget (COB) Agnes Odhiambo for the first quarter of the 2018/2019 financial year revealed that many MCAs across various counties increased their expenditure on trips and allowances.
According to the report, County Assemblies spent a total of 423.31 million shillings on MCAs committee sitting allowances against an approved budget allocation of 2.87 billion shillings.
In translation, the amount equals 14.8 percent of the approved MCAs committee sitting allowance budget. The amount also depicted a significant increase from 5 percent attained in financial year 2017/18 when 152.39 million shillings was incurred.
The increase reveals probable misappropriation of funds. For instance, against the recommended amount an MCA should get, 14 counties surpassed the maximum monthly payment.
Migori leads the pack with an allowance of 121,026 shillings per MCA followed by Kwale, Siaya, Kakamega, and Bungoma that paid at least 20,000 shillings more than the maximum limit. These counties spent 108,668, 107,969, 102,136, and 101,862 shillings on sitting allowance per MCA respectively.
Whereas Busia paid 98,793 shillings for each member, Nyandarua paid 97,867 shillings. Kisii, on the other hand, paid each MCA a monthly average of 95,718 shillings.
Other counties that paid their member’s committee sitting allowances exceeding the allowed limit includes Makueni’s (94,797), Mombasa (90,026), Nyeri (89,594), Kiambu (89,078), Elgeyo Marakwet (86,603) and Nairobi City which gave each member 82, 736 shillings.
Although Nairobi – which recorded the highest Expenditure on Committee Sitting Allowances of the 47 counties with an expenditure of 31.77 million shillings – raises some eyebrows, it hasn’t overshadowed possible misuse of funds in other counties as well.
The whole MCA sitting allowance issue seems to be a fickle business. If anything, the above 14 counties make one question how the allocation is done in relation to the number of MCAs.
The CoB report, which has a table (shown below) showing the number of MCAs in each County Assembly and the monthly average that was paid to each member, shows that there are MCAs who earned less or more than the average.
True, one will argue that it is dependent on the total expenditure, that from the total budget allocation, some funds remain. There are fears that the remaining funds, which are set aside for other purposes, are pocketed by some individuals.