Sunday, June 23, 2013

Did Serem Dupe Us On MPs' Real Pay?

Friday, June 21, 2013 - 00:00 -- BY JERRY OKUNGU
According to the Standard Newspaper of June 15, there are three interesting set of figures that make good reading for those who have been following the debate. In these comparisons, MPs in the the 10th Parliament quietly earned Sh1,535,266 in monthly salaries and allowances.
This is the figure that Sarah Serem reduced to Sh892,817, yet the figures she disclosed to the public were Sh530,000 as gross salaries per MP.
Despite quietly setting the MPs ‘salaries at Sh892,827, they still rejected it and even called her names.
Now that she has finally reached a compromise with the MPs, it is emerging that she didn’t stick to her guns after all. She will pay each MP Sh1.2 million basic salary and allowances before factoring in huge mileage allowances set at an exorbitant Sh109 per km.
One wonders why Serem should have allowed MPs to increase their mileage claims and pensions at the expense of the tax payer if the reason for setting up the Salaries Remuneration Commission in was to reduce public expenditure and free up extra capital for development.
That Deputy President William Ruto is the one who brokered a deal between the Parliamentary Service Commission and the SRC, in whose interest was this deal signed?
But one can now make a good guess why Serem succumbed to the MPs demands and finally bettered their pay by 100 per cent. In pegging their salaries at Sh531,000, she failed to disclose to the public that this figure did not include numerous allowances and benefits such as pensions, car grants and Sh20 million house loans for each of the 419 members of the August House, the two speakers, two clerks and several auxiliary parliamentary staff.
What could have madeSerem and her commissioners hype the half a million pay check for MPs while keeping silent on the numerous packs? Why didn’t the SRC tell Kenyans that MPs would still be enjoying a tax holiday like all constitutional office holders?
The reason is not difficult to guess. And as the MPs earlier rightly accused the commission, the SRC zeroed in on Parliament while raising the packages of constitutional commissioners. And when hawkeyed MPs cornered them with threats to cut commissions’ sizes and budgets, Serem caved in. The cat was out of the bag.
Now that Serem has given waheshimiwa more than they bargained for, how will this bad deal impact on the economy and the nation’s development for the next five years?
All things considered, the monthly pay bill for Parliament is likely to be in excess of Sh600 million per month which easily translates into Sh7.2 billion per in year one, Sh7.9 billion in year two, Sh8.7 billion in year three, Sh9.4 billion in year four and Sh10.4 billion in the final year.
Five years down the line, MPs will have consumed Sh43.6 billion, the equivalent of 10 per cent of all revenue collected in the current financial year. The question to ask is this: is there a better way of spending our public funds?
What is even more annoying is that communication from the SRC all along gave the impression that its actions were in line with the aspirations of ordinary Kenyans who shoulder the burden of taxes consumed by state officers.
It was the reason the civil society came out in their numbers to support SRC's move to reduce public service expenditure. Now the realty is downing on them, and indeed all Kenyans, that Serem’s rhetoric was a hoax to hoodwink the gullible public when she was already in bed with MPs.
In Kenya, all public servants and private sector employees have been taxed on their benefits and allowances since 1992. It is therefore inconceivable that more than 20 years later, and with a new constitution stipulating that all Kenyans must be taxed on all their incomes, Serem can dare award MPs Sh1.2 million per month and only tax them Sh200,000.
Under the circumstances, some of us who have been ardent Serem supporters must withdraw our support and revisit Jakoyo Midiwo’s most telling damning description of her in Parliament when he boldly stated that Serem did not get the job on the basis of her qualifications, but rather on other considerations.
As things stand, Kenyans deserve a plausible explanation from Serem, failure to which they will support MPs in their pruning of constitutional commissions, starting with the SRC.
- See more at: http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-125223/did-serem-dupe-us-mps-real-pay#sthash.tQGkNl3G.dpuf

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