Senators have been allocated Sh2.7 billion to oversight counties.
According to the Parliamentary Service Commission budget estimates tabled in the National Assembly yesterday, they will get the cash for “operating expenses”.
The senators have also got Sh612 million for basic wages of temporary staff in their county offices.
They have made several unsuccessful bids since 2013 to be given the funds, but they have always been frustrated by the National Assembly at the last minute. This was blamed on supremacy battles between the two Houses.
National Assembly members have been rejecting senators’ quest to control the funds on grounds it is illegal and violates the Public Finance Management Act.
Senators have always argued they are not to blame for not holding their governors to account over huge waste of public funds as their oversight roles have not been enhanced through a special kitty.
Already, the Public Finance (Senate Monitoring and Evaluation) Regulations 2018 have been put in place. They established the fund to provide oversight over national government revenue allocated to county governments annually.
REGULATIONS
Legislators in the National Assembly last year shot down a proposal to establish a Sh2 billion monitoring and evaluation fund during the 11th Parliament.
The regulations require senators to use the money for county expenditure, research and survey studies on issues affecting counties, track and monitor development activities and undertake social auditing of county development projects.
The senators will be the third set of legislators to control an allocation after the 290 MPs and 47 woman representatives.
Elected MPs have the Constituency Development Fund, while woman MPs have the National Government Affirmative Action Fund. Each of the 290 MPs is entitled to Sh100 million annually for development projects in their constituencies, while the 47 woman MPs control Sh7 million each. According to the proposed figures, members of the National Assembly and the Senate will spend Sh5.9 billion to travel locally and internationally. Majority leader Aden Duale tabled the budget estimates.
Senators have been allocated Sh660 million for domestic travel and subsistence, and Sh203.7 million for trips abroad. For committee related activities, they have been allocated Sh413 million and Sh272.5 million for domestic and foreign travels, respectively.
Senate Speaker Kenneth Lusaka will get Sh54 million for domestic travel and Sh50 million for foreign travel. He has Sh15 million for hospitality supplies and services.
His National Assembly counterpart Justin Muturi wants Sh34 million for domestic travel and Sh72 million for foreign travels.
For committee related activities, National Assembly has budgetted for Sh815 million for domestic travel and Sh1 billion for foreign travels. On the other hand, members of the National Assembly will take the lion’s share of Sh 2.3 billion for domestic travel, while Sh370 million have been allocated for foreign journeys.
The PSC wants Sh42.55 billion for the recurrent and development expenditure. The gross recurrent estimate is Sh39.34 billion — the National Assembly will account for Sh23.4 billion and the PSC Sh15 billion.
Parliament’s development estimate is Sh3.2 billion.
“The PSC vote encompasses the Senate House, the Parliamentary Joint Services and the Parliamentary Studies and Training. The Capital projects of the Parliamentary Service are also budgetted under the vote,” the report prepared by PSC chairman Muturi says.
“The National Assembly mainly caters for the recurrent operations of the National Assembly House.”
The Senate seeks Sh100 million to refurbish its chambers. Sh1.8 billion has been allocated for on- going construction of 26-multistorey building. The PSC has projected the building will need another Sh100 million and the amount will be set aside in the 2019-20 and 2020-21 financial years.
Sh800 million has been set aside for installation of integrated security system, which includes police security equipment.
The PSC has budgetted Sh300 million for non-residential buildings and has projected it will need Sh100 million in 2019-20. In 2020-21, it will need Sh300 million to purchase buildings.