And if so, are Senators justified in pushing for the allocation of these
funds?
A few months to the close of the current Parliament’s term, the Senate is trying to push for additional fund allocations through the oversight funds. According to
, the Senate formed a 15-member committee early in December 2016 to push for allocations of the over KSh1 billion oversight funds to senators.
The Senators, according to the article, have accused Parliament of ‘maliciously and illegally annulling’ draft regulations with provisions on the administration of the funds. The senators insisted that the provisions are critical as some governors ‘might be tempted to divert public funds towards campaigns’ in this election year.
The article further reports that the under the annulled regulations, 92% of the fund was to be allocated to the 47 elected senators, 6% to the nominated senators with the remainder 2% allocated towards training and administration. The allocation of the fund to elected senators is to be shared further as follows — 47% equally, 45% based on population represented and 8% based on the size of the county.
With the committee due to report back any time now on the way forward in pushing for these funds, PesaCheck set out to fact-check if the Senate is justified in pushing for these allocations and if so, did National Assembly ‘maliciously and illegally’ annul the regulations providing for the administration of the funds?
According to our fact-checks, these claims are FALSE for the following reasons.
These funds are not necessary. The Constitution of Kenya and the Public Finance Management Act has established several offices and
to enhance oversight and management of public finances. For instance, there are
whose functions include investigation into the management, activities and operations of the assigned ministries and departments. This is in addition to support in oversight provided by the office of the
and
who also have functions and roles that collectively ensure that public finances are not mismanaged.
Further, there is no
that mandates Senators to each provide oversight on projects in their respective counties which, would amount to duplication of effort on the work that the same Senators are doing through the more thematic Senate Committees. Senators are already compensated to conduct this oversight work in their
as county representatives in the legislature and members of departmental committees.
Finally, the suggested formula does not make sense as factors such as the population of the County do not necessarily influence the number of projects being undertaken by the county that require oversight as these projects are usually initiated based on County Development Plans.