Five county assemblies are on the spot for exceeding the sitting allowance limit in 2017-18, the latest report by the Controller of Budget shows.
In the report exclusively seen by the Star, COB Agnes Odhiambo says the 47 assemblies spent Sh1.46 billion on sitting allowances against an approved budget of Sh2.34 billion.
The five counties paid more than Sh80,000 monthly sitting allowances recommended by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission.
Kakamega and Marsabit top the allowances gravy train, with each MCA pocketing Sh124,800 and Sh120,968 monthly.
The other counties that did not heed the SRC and could find themselves in trouble with Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji are Tana River Sh93,599, Vihiga Sh85,453, and Taita Taveta Sh80,760.
On the lower end of the spectrum, counties such as Bomet, Kajiado and Turkana paid Sh17,906, Sh18,634 and Sh9,809 a month.
“This expenditure translates to 62.3 per cent of the approved MCAs sitting allowance budget, and a decline from 75.1 per cent attained in FY 2016-17, when Sh2.32 billion was spent,” Odhiambo says in the report.
The 2017-22 pay structure for all public servants unveiled by the SRC slashed MCAs' monthly pay from Sh165,000 to Sh144,375.
The commission in July 2017 abolished MCAs’ mileage reimbursements, sitting allowances for plenary sessions and special responsibility perks. The MCAs who were elected in the August 8, 2017, general election were not expected to earn a monthly sitting stipend exceeding Sh80,000. The previous ones got Sh124,800.
According to the report, Nairobi county was the highest local revenue generator with Sh10.11 billion collected.
Mombasa came in at a distant second with Sh3.16 billion followed closely by Nakuru, which collected Sh2.28 billion.
The bottom three local revenue generators were Lamu, Tana River and Mandera, with Sh55.29 million, Sh56.63 million and Sh61.82 million respectively.
This performance was more or less the same as the previous year. In 2016-17 Mandera collected Sh59.65 million, Lamu Sh45 million and Tana River Sh18 million.
“The aggregate annual own source revenue target for counties was Sh49.22 billion compared to actual collection of Sh32.49 billion, which was 66 per cent of the target. This was a slight decline compared to Sh32.52 billion generated in FY 2016-17, which was 56.4 per cent of annual revenue target,” the report says.
Tana River collected 188.8 per cent more than the revenue target followed by Migori at 111.1 per cent and Kwale with 100.5 per cent.
The counties that recorded the lowest proportion of own source revenue against annual targets were Garissa at 34.7 per cent, Kisii at 27 per cent and Mandera at 26.8 per cent.