The latest Report of the Controller of Budget on the Budget Implementation in the counties in the financial year 2017/2018 reveals interesting data about sitting allowances of MCAs. They vary considerably – and, at least on first sight, unexplainably. A good opportunity for county media to follow-up on.
The extremes: The Turkana MCAs received only 9,809 Kshs per month, whereas, on the other extreme, the the Kakamega county assembly members received 124,800 Kshs. The spreadsheets reveal untold stories about many counties.
Questions a media report can tackle
- How did Turkana County MCAs manage to spend only 9,809 Ksh per month?
- Why did the Kakamega MCAs consume so much more per sitting?
- Look it up. Where is your county in this spreadsheet? Did the MCAs receive a reasonable amount or an unreasonable? What is the answer of the County-Assembly speaker to your questions about the expenditure?
- Migori county topped with the highest amount of money allocated for sitting allowance at 250 million shillings but consumed “only ” 36 million – 17.8%. Bungoma County Assembly followed closely by allocating 190 million shillings for sitting allowances, but consumed “only” 35 million – 18.8% .
- What did they do with the leftover of the allocation, amounting to 82 percent and 81 percent respectively? Have the county assemblies of Kakamega and Migori worked more than others? How?
These files have the spreadsheet we are refering to:
- County-Budget-Implementation-Review-2017-2018 (whole file – pdf, 10 MB)!
- (page 11 and 12 only) County-Budget-Implementation-Review-2017-2018 (pdf, 110 kb only!)
Background
As you can see in the last line of the spreadsheet, the average expenditure per MCA per month was 54,068 Kshs. So you can see where your county stands, and if your MCA members are below or above this average.
The Salaries and Remuneration Commission has recommended a maximum ceiling of 80,000 Kshs, but five counties broke that ceiling and jumped to higher expenses: Kakamega, Marsabit, Tana River, Vihiga and Taita Taveta.
The Controller of Budghet writes about this table, citing the last line and the overall picture:
“During the reporting period, the County Assemblies spent Kshs. 1.46 billion on MCAs sitting allowances against an approved budget allocation of Kshs. 2.34 billion. This expenditure translates to 62.3 per cent of the approved MCAs sitting allowance budget, and a decline from 75.1 per cent attained in FY 2016/17 when Kshs.2.32 billion was spent.”
