Thursday, October 17th 2013Nairobi, Kenya: Members of the Judicial Service Commission allegedly pocketed over Sh125 million in two-and-a-half years through sitting allowances by holding over 400 meetings.
The commissioners are paid an allowance of Sh80,000 per sitting and the Public Service Commission (PSC) issued an interim circular to the JSC on the perks, with the understanding that the commissioners would meet not more than twice a month.
However, the commissioners held 467 meetings for which allowances were paid.
The Chief Registrar of the Judiciary, Mrs Gladys Boss Shollei, made the shocking revelations yesterday before the Budget and Appropriations Committee of Parliament.
She said the JSC members pocketed the money after holding 467 meetings over a period of two-and-a- half years instead of the 48 meetings allowed by law.
As Shollei was appearing before the MPs, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament was meeting the Auditor General Edward Ouko. The committee asked him to move into the Judiciary and carry out a forensic audit and report to the House within a month.
The revelations by Shollei prompted some MPs in the Budget and Appropriations Committee to complain that the highest paid commissioner, Florence Mwangangi, who was paid Sh18 million for meetings held on different dates between January 2011 to July 2013, was making more money than other State officers.
The MPs said Mwangangi’s perks worked out to Sh587,000 per month in perks alone, more than the gross basic salary of the MPs currently at Sh532,500 per month.
Affected spending plans
Shollei told the committee that the huge perks had disrupted spending plans forcing her to separate the money for the Judiciary and that of the JSC in the current budget.
“I have had a very difficult relationship with the JSC. The issue of allowances has put me in the problems that I am in with the commission right now. I have sometimes let the commissioners have their way so that I get to work. The more I put my foot down, the more I got into trouble,” said Shollei at the meeting held at Parliament buildings in Nairobi.
The Chief Registrar revealed instances of intimidation of staff by the commissioners; cases where she had been forced to intervene to stop the raid on public coffers; and instances where commissioners bent rules to get more money — like the time when they demanded to be paid sitting allowances while on foreign or domestic trips.
She tabled letters she had written to Chief Justice Willy Mutunga asking him to intervene and stop the JSC from meddling in the financial management at the Judiciary.
When she got no help from the CJ, she wrote to the National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich, seeking further guidance.
Mr Rotich responded and copied a letter to Mutunga with a terse warning that the commission should not interfere with Shollei’s mandate as the accounting officer of the Judiciary. Rotich quoted the Public Finance Management Act that says anyone who “interferes or obstructs” an accounting officer will be prosecuted under the Act.
Interim circular
“I excuse their ignorance on the PFM law, because they do not understand,” Shollei told the MPs.
The Chief Registrar said the PSC circular on sitting allowances issued in June 2011 was “interim” with the hope that when the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) took over, it would decide on whether the JSC commissioners would be given a monthly retainer on a flat-rate, or if the allowances will continue to hold.
The SRC chairperson Sarah Serem and some commissioners also met the Budget Committee and told the MPs the JSC stonewalled when it came to giving information on the perks. Serem said every time the SRC issued advice on pay to the JSC it was ignored.
The chairman of the Budget Committee Mutava Musyimi sought to know why the sitting allowances for the JSC was four times that which other commissioners in similar bodies earned, and 16 times the amount paid to MPs.
“Many of these people in the JSC are State officers. Please help us understand these wild inconsistencies,” said Mutava.
Although the Chief Justice, two Supreme Court judges, the Attorney General, and some employees of the Judiciary earned the sitting allowances despite being on the payroll of the Judiciary, the MPs were willing to overlook that since they too earn a sitting allowance.
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