• Nominated MCA Silvyia Museiya discouraged outsourcing of legal services and instead called for hiring of more lawyers to cut cost on expensive external counsel.
• In the 2016-17 financial year, the legal costs were Sh645.3 million against the approved budgetary allocation of Sh105 million.
Image: EZEKIEL AMINGA
Concern that the county government spends collossal sums of money on external lawyers has prompted MCAs to demand the development of a policy on outsourcing legal services.
Nominated MCA Silvyia Museiya notes that the County Attorney had eight lawyers and still hired expensive external lawyers.
She says in a motion passed on Thursday last week that there was a need to reduce legal costs.
Museiya said: “The legal department’s outsourcing of lawyers has become an easy business for some lawyers sometimes in collusion with the county attorney's office, which is saddening.”
She discouraged outsourcing of legal services and instead called for the recruitment of more lawyers to cut cost on expensive external counsel.
She was worried by the number of cases the county government lost due to lack of robust legal representation.
Museiya said the county's legal department remained understaffed despite the enactment of the Nairobi City County Office of the County Attorney Act requiring it to be staffed with competent legislative drafters, legal personnel and constitutional experts.
"The county legal department has failed to promote and guide the county resources in a manner that protects the property of residents of Nairobi county due to lack of professionalism."
In the 2016-17 financial year report, Auditor General Edward Ouko was concerned by the money that the legal department spent, citing Sh592.4 million unauthorised payments.
In the period under review, the department’s legal costs were Sh645.3 million against the approved budgetary allocation of Sh105 million.
According to Ouko, the department paid 12 law firms Sh314.4 million. The money was spent outside the Integrated Financial Management Information System.
In February last year, the County Assembly Public Accounts Committee found that the legal department spent Sh480 million, more than four times the Sh100 million budgeted for.
The payments were made without documentary evidence. In particular, a total of Sh318.4 million was paid to different lawyers without supporting documents.
The ward representatives have in the past flagged the legal department for colluding with law firms to siphon money from City Hall, noting in particular financial year 2018-19 when no case was handled by county lawyers.
Instead, 48 law firms were paid Sh795.9 million. Only eight of the firms presented fee notes.
Documents before the County Assembly Legal and Justice committee showed that 335 cases were handled by the legal department with only 12 of them successful in the same period. The rest were either withdrawn or lost.
The committee questioned why Sh795.9 million was paid only to law firms yet the county's allocation for the clearance of the pending bills in 2018-2019 was Sh2.5 billion.
Museiya, who is also the chairperson of the Education Committee, said the formulation of the policy will ensure that the taxpayers' money will be well spent.
Deputy Minority Whip Moses Ogeto said the policy framework must give guidelines on how and on which locus standi must be presented when giving cases to outsourced lawyers.
“What we have seen is that the county gives priority to paying lawyers and not contractors and other service providers. This has delayed development in Nairobi. However, with a policy, funds will be accountably used,” Ogeto said.
MCA Mary Arivitsa said the policy sought will save revenue losses and show how money was used in the legal department.