- Kahiga allegedly decided to process salaries of the executive staff but left out the legislature
- But acting county secretary Leboo Morintat says problem was from the office of the clerk of the assembly
Image: FILE
Nairobi MCAs are headed for a showdown with the executive over delay in payment of December salaries for the assembly and its staff.
They accuse finance executive Pauline Kahiga of blocking payment of salaries by failing to sign Form C that is sent to the Central Bank of Kenya requesting withdrawal of funds.
Assembly Speaker Beatrice Elachi on Monday said the executive had no right to deny the assembly salaries.
"Why should the CEC for finance fail to sign Form C which is needed for funds to be released by CBK?" she asked.
Elachi said Kahiga had informed her she would be traveling until January 4 and therefore needed everything finalised before she left.
"On December 24, we looked for the CEC for finance but she left without giving a word to the assembly in regards to the payment," she added.
Elachi said the assembly would fully carry out its mandate without intimidation or blackmail by following the law and the executive should do its part.
Minority leader David Mberia accused Kahiga of being biased when she decided to process salaries of the executive staff but left out the legislature and chose to proceed to her holiday.
"She chose to pay herself and other staff of the executive but not us and our staff. This is how the executive sees the MCAs as useless yet we are the ones who appropriate the money through the budget," he said.
Backing his sentiments, majority whip June Ndegwa accused Kahiga of incompetence.
"The office holder in the finance docket is incompetent. How do you go on holiday without paying people their salaries? We are aware that she came back and paid the executive side and this just shows how MCAs are degraded," she said.
The human resource office of the assembly generates the assembly's payroll which is signed by the clerk, uploaded to the IFMIS and then pushed for payment by the executive.
The requisition comes from the CEC for finance who requests for payment for both the assembly and the executive.
Form A is a letter sent to the Controller of Budget by the executive requesting permission to withdraw the money.
Upon receiving the letter, the COB writes a letter through Form B to authorise withdrawal.
The final letter is Form C , which the county writes to the Central Bank of Kenya attaching Form B (approved by the COB) which indicates the amount of money needed.
Form C is signed by the chief officer for finance or head of the county treasury but has to be forwarded to CBK by the executive for finance.
Delay comes when the CEC for finance has not signed and forwarded the requisition to the CBK or the clerk of the assembly delays to forward the payroll to the executive.
Efforts to reach Kahiga were futile as she did not responded to our calls or text messages.
Defending the executive, acting county secretary Leboo Morintat said the problem was from the office of the clerk of the assembly.
"The assembly have their own account but they just requested us to help them with the salaries but it coincided with the holiday. The problem is the clerk as he did not hand over things to the do with IFMIS," Morintat said.
But assembly clerk Jacob Ngwele pointed the blame to Speaker Elachi.
"Instead of Elachi allowing me back to the assembly, she went ahead and appointed an acting clerk and the law clearly states that the clerk is the only accounting officer and has authority to incur expenditure," he said.
Ngwele said the change also caused some delay in the November salaries, which the MCAs and staff received on December 15.
However, Elachi refuted the accusations saying the delay had nothing to do with the clerk.