The Salaries and Remuneration Commission yesterday gave in to pressure by members of the county assemblies who have been demanding improved pay perks.
The enhanced perks which the approximately 1,800 MCAs have been demanding are likely to put on hold many of the development programmes that the county governments have projected.
The MCAs have been on strike since May to pressure the SRC and the government to accede to their demands. Apart from the Sh79, 200 monthly salary, each county assembly person will be entitled to Sh39,528 mileage allowance per month up from the current Sh20, 000.
The amount is paid on the assumption that the MCA will not make return journeys of not more than 45 kilometres. If they travel for extra kilometres, the
MCAs will be entitled to reimbursement at the rate of Sh109 per kilomere as long as the vehicle used has an engine capacity of between 2,000 and 3,000 cc.
This one allowance alone will cost taxpayers an additional Sh71 million per month or Sh854 million per year.
The MCAs will also get a Sh3million mortgage allowance which will approximately cost you Sh5.4 billion to be repaid within five years and at the lowly interest rate of only three per cent. On average, mortgage rates range between 14 and 22 per cent depending on the lender.
The cheapest is the12 per cent offered by many saccos.
Each county will finance the mortgage schemes. The provision of the money is pegged on the ability of the respective counties to finance such a scheme.
Since it is unlikely that many of the MCAs will forego this mortgage allowance, service delivery and development is likely to take a back seat in most counties.
The SRC also agreed to increase the number of committee sittings from a maximum of four per week to eight. At each sitting, the committee chairman will draw Sh6,500, his deputy Sh5,200 while ordinary members will receive Sh3,900. In just one week, members of these committees can claim between Sh31,200 and Sh52,000!
The MCAs will be able to apply for a Sh2 million car loan repayable within five years at an interest of just three per cent. Announcing the deal, the SRC chairperson Sarah Serem urged the MCAs to return to work. “We have brokered a stalemate and as SRC, there is absolutely no reason the assemblies cannot go back to work.
The management of salaries for public service cannot be achieved through political statements, roadside declarations or in boardrooms in secrecy,” she said and promised to review the Sh79, 200 basic pay after the completion of a job audit being conducted by PriceWaterhouseCoopers.
The deal was brokered by the MCAs representatives led by Interim National Chairman on Salary Negations Joseph Makilap. Some MCAs are however said to be still unhappy with the proposed pay structure and are demanding their monthly salaries to be tripled from Sh79, 200 to Sh257, 500.
The 47 county assembly speakers also want their pay to double from the current Sh225,000 to Sh512, 800 per month. Their demand is based on the current pay structure of MPs and the National Assembly Speaker which is pegged at 43 per cent and 80 per cent of the President’s salary respectively.
The MCAs and the speakers want their salaries and those of the county speakers pegged at 43 per cent and 80 per cent of the governor’s salary.
Currently, the salary is pegged at 12 and 35 per cent of the governor’s basic pay, respectively.
Yesterday, the MCAs replicated the trick used in June by MPs who armtwisted the SRC into agreeing to a deal which sees each of them drawing a monthly salary of more than Sh1 million including allowances.
The MPs are only supposed to pay 30 per cent tax on their monthly salary of Sh532, 500. However, the deal they made saw them claim allowances for unlimited committee meetings, they receive a tax-free pension scheme, get enhanced grants to buy vehicles of their choice irrespective of the engine capacity and even managed to ensure they retained a cheap mortgage scheme. Currently, MPs are each entitled to a Sh5 million grant to buy a car which is 50 per cent higher than the Sh3.3million cap set by the Tenth Parliament.
They are also claiming Sh109 per kilometre for a maximum of 750-kilometres every week with the additional travel distance compensated at the rate of 70 per cent or Sh76.30 per kilometre as approved by the Automobile Association of Kenya.
This earns each MP an additional Sh327,000 in monthly travel allowances.