Members of the National Assembly have now resorted to holding unnecessary and uncontrolled committee meetings to increase their monthly earnings.
The MPs have taken advantage of a ceasefire deal agreed with the Salaries and Remuneration Commission in June that removed the ceiling on the number of committee meetings that a law maker can attend in a week.
The SRC had capped such meetings at four per week. Even if MPs held more than four committee meetings per week, they would only be allowed to claim for four such meetings.
The MPs removed this clause as part of the 'compromise' they made to drop their demands for enhanced salaries. They have also taken advantage of the constitutional provision that excludes Cabinet secretaries from being members of Parliament which now requires committees to respond to questions raised by MPs.
The result has been the numerous and unnecessary committee meetings many of which are held outside Nairobi (with Mombasa being a favored venue) all paid for by taxpayers.
These meetings are held outside Parliament even though there exists a directive barring such extravagant and unnecessary expenditure. Majority of the committee rooms in Parliament are currently idle and under-utilized.
Members of two committees have this week scheduled a record 12 meetings which translates as four per day for the three days when the committees will be transacting their businesses.
Today the Public Accounts Committee is scheduled to meet officials of the Devolution and Planning ministry, the Labour, Social Security and Services. It will then meet officials from the Cabinet Affairs Office and later the Higher Education, Science and Technology.
Each of these meetings will only last for one hour and will be considered a full session thereby allowing the members to claim allowances ranging from Sh10,000 (for the chairperson) Sh8,000 for the deputy and Sh5,000 for each ordinary member.
By the end of today, the chairman will pocket Sh40,000 as allowance, his deputy will take home Sh32,000 while the ordinary members will each receive an allowance of Sh20,000.
If all the 27 members of the committee attend all the four sittings, it means taxpayers will have paid a total of Sh572,000 as allowances in just a single day! This is over and above the Sh532, 500 salary the MPs will receive at the end of the month.
This translates to a total of Sh1.1 million for the two committees scheduled to meet government officials today. There are 29 committees with each having an independent calender.
On Wednesday, the same PAC is scheduled to meet officials from the Ministries of East African Community, Tourism as well as those from the ministry of Devolution and Planning. It will also meet Office of the Attorney General and Department of Justice.
On Thursday, the committee will meet the Ministries of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, the ministry of Environment, Water and Natural Resources and Mining in the morning. The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) will follow later in the afternoon.
This means that an MP sitting in only one committee will have earned about Sh60,000 in allowances in just three days while the chairman would pocket Sh120,000 and deputy chairman Sh96,000.
The Public Investments Committee also has a date with the Attorney General today morning to discuss the privatization of Telkom Kenya Ltd. After meeting the AG for one and a half hour, the committee will meet the Privatization Commission to discuss the company’s restructuring.
The same committee is also scheduled to meet with the National Treasury and Information and Communication Cabinet secretaries later today. The Communications Commission of Kenya, National Social security Fund, Kenya Ports Authority, Kenya Airports Authority and Kenya Ports Authority will meet with the PIC on Wednesday.
Two follow-up meetings with each of these agencies are scheduled to be held on Thursday and Friday. Each committee member will submit four attendance forms (one for each meeting) which will be used to calculate their monthly allowances on top of the monthly salary of Sh532, 500.
Many of the MPs just make technical appearances—arrive, sign the attendance sheet and leave immediately afterwards— and do not participate in the discussions.
The 'business' of committee has become so lucrative that members compete to travel to Mombasa for meetings. Recently, four House committees- Education, Research and Technology, Administration and National Security, CDF and Catering spent a week each in Mombasa.
The Catering committee went to Mombasa to discuss how to improve the diet of MPs; the Budget and Appropriations which is the largest committee with 51 members, is currently at the Flamingo Beach Hotel in Mombasa for an induction workshop which began yesterday and is scheduled to end on Wednesday.
The PIC which has spent over a month investigating the indebtedness of the National Cereals and Produce Board indebtedness is yet to finalize its report and present it to the House.
The PAC has for more than ten days been investigating the acquisition of the Biometric Voter Registration kits and the “Hustle's” jet but is yet to make any meaningful findings.
Now the PAC chairman Ababu Namwamba has indicated the committee will have to make extensive and expensive tours to Canada, India, Nigeria and Ghana where the BVRs were sourced and have been used before the committee completes its report.
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