Finance Secretary Henry Rotich has said the request for car loans or grants for MCAs will not be handled by the national government.Rotich said MCAs are under county governments.
He said the request made to President Uhuru for the car loans has nothing to do with the national government.
Speaking in Eldoret town yesterday, Rotich said MCAs need to assess the request keenly as the government currently faces financial problems.
"It will be a matter to be fowarded to the Salaries and Remuneration Commission for assesment," said Rotich. Uhuru said the request will be considered.
He was speaking at Flamingo Hotel in Mombasa town on Friday during a meeting with MCAs. "Whether it is a loan or a grant, it will be for everyone," Uhuru said.The MCAs said like MPs, they need cars to operate effectively.
Rotich said it is up to the counties to decide on their abilities to handle the request. "If it's a loan for each of them, they can go to banks and borrow. But if its a grant then counties will decide if they want to spend part of their budgets on buying cars for MCAs," he said.He said many of the counties had complained of shortage of funds to do key projects like the infrastructure and it would be upto them to handle the request by the MCAs.
The MCAs who number more than 3,000 have requested for support to buy the cars and they want to be grants for the cars. That means that it will cost more than Sh 6 Billion for all the MCAs.
Analysts argue that the car grants are not a priority to the government considering that already measures are being taken to cut down wages and non core expenditures.
Rotich added that the MCAs will have to formally forward their request to the SRC because it is a benefit which is under the Sarah Serem led commission.