Counties spent billions on MCAs' sitting allowances and foreign travel

Ten county governments illegally paid out sitting allowances to MCAs.

In a report, Controller of Budget (CoB) Agnes Odhiambo said counties exceeded the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) recommended a monthly maximum of Sh124,000 per MCA.

Counties that defied SRC are Busia (Sh202,969), Taita Taveta (Sh172,810), Siaya (Sh166,830), Trans Nzoia (Sh152,044) and Homa Bay (148,525).

Others are Nyandarua (Sh142,726), Samburu (Sh141,003), Kisii (Sh138,899), Kisumu (Sh134,665) and Vihiga (Sh134,163).

Murang'a, Wajir and Marsabit paid the least sitting allowances to MCAs. They paid the ward representatives Sh31,468, Sh41,866 and Sh55,573 respectively.

The Budget Implementation Review Report covers the first nine months of the 2015-16 financial year from July 2015 to March this year.

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The CoB said the sitting allowances translate to 56.1 per cent of the approved annual budget allocation of Sh3.71 billion.

foreign travel

The report shows county governments spent Sh7.15 billion on domestic and foreign travel against an approved budget of Sh11.33 billion. This represents 63.1 per cent of the total budget allocation for domestic and foreign travel. The expenditure was an increment of Sh1.44 billion from Sh5.71 billion in the first nine months of 2014-2015 financial year.

Nairobi spent the highest amount on travel at Sh320.93 million, followed by Migori and Turkana at Sh272.93 million and Sh270.36 million respectively.

Those that spent the least on travel were Tharaka Nithi (Sh65.23 million), Elgeyo Marakwet (Sh56.04 million) and Narok (19.12 million). 

An analysis of expenditure on foreign and domestic travel as a proportion of budgetary allocation by counties shows that Trans Nzoia, Makueni and Bomet spent more than 100 per cent of the approved budget.

Trans Nzoia's annual consumption on domestic and foreign travel was 105.4 per cent, while in Makueni and Bomet it was 107.4 per cent and 117.8 per cent respectively.

The CoB said county assemblies spent a total of Sh85.82 billion on salaries and allowances. This represents 66.8 per cent of the total recurrent expenditure and 46.7 per cent of the total expenditure.

During the period under review, Nairobi reported the highest expenditure on salaries and allowances at Sh9.88 billion, followed by Nakuru (Sh3.21 billion) and Mombasa (Sh3.11 billion).

Samburu, Tana River and Lamu spent Sh877.38 million, Sh649.64 million and Sh598.16 million respectively on salaries and allowances - the least according to the CoB.

Analysis of salaries and allowances as a percentage of total expenditure shows that Embu, Tharaka Nithi and Elgeyo Marakwet recorded the highest percentages at 70.4 per cent, 70.1 per cent and 69.1 per cent.

Wajir, Mandera and Tana River recorded the least proportion of their salaries and allowances to their total expenditure at 29.5 per cent, 26.8 per cent and 22.6 per cent respectively.

According to the CoB, the aggregate county governments' budget for the 2015-16 financial year amounted to Sh365.51 billion. But for the first nine months, the CoB authorised withdrawal of Sh200.79 billion from various county revenue fund accounts.

It is out of this amount that county governments spent Sh183.76 billion, representing 50.3 per cent of the total approved budgets including recurrent and development expenditure.