PS Marwa under fire over Sh1.3bn beneficiaries list

MPs on Tuesday raised concerns over the use of billions meant to cushion the poor in the four counties put under partial lockdown.

This was after the Labour ministry failed to produce a list of beneficiaries.

The government has initiated a programme to cushion poor families in the counties of Nairobi, Mombasa, Kwale and Kilifi during the coronavirus crisis.

The pilot programme will consume Sh1.3 billion of the Sh10 billion meant to cushion the elderly, orphans and other vulnerable groups.

A multi-agency team has already settled on 108,119 beneficiaries to benefit from the Sh2,000 paid every two weeks for a period of three months.

On Tuesday, MPs were shocked to learn that Labour PS Nelson Marwa, who is the accounting officer for the Fund, is not the custodian of the list of beneficiaries, as should be the case.

Instead, Marwa told the committee that it is with the Interior ministry, which is also a member of the multi-agency team.

“We have written to the Ministry of Interior and National Coordination requesting for the list of the beneficiaries and amount paid to each. The list will be submitted to Parliament upon receipt,” Marwa told the committee.

“However, the amount paid per beneficiary is Sh2,000 for every two weeks for the next three months totalling to Sh12,000. The money is being delivered through Safaricom M-Pesa system.”

Committee members, led by chairman Ali Wario, were however not convinced and demanded to be told why Marwa is not in charge of a function that falls within his mandate.

“You said you have written to the Interior PS for the names of beneficiaries but when the CS appeared before us, we asked who is the accounting officer, and he said PS Marwa. Is it that you are only there to sign cheques without knowing the real beneficiaries?” Wario asked.

Marwa also came under fire for how they apportioned beneficiaries in the four counties.

Documents tabled by Marwa showed that Kwale had the highest beneficiaries at  48,627, followed by Kilifi with 33,817 households enrolled for the programme.

Nairobi has 20,396 beneficiaries while Mombasa has 5,359 households.

Marwa also told the committee that elderly persons in the country will have to wait longer for their universal health cover following budgetary constraints at the ministry.

The ministry, which was expecting Sh6 billion to start the ambitious project, only received Sh600 million, an amount only enough to cover one month.

The PS said the ministry instead used the UHC allocation to bridge the deficit on the Inua Jamii programme also being rolled out for the elderly persons.

“During the registration, it was anticipated that they were to be provided with a Universal Health Cover. Some resources were then provided to the Ministry of Health with a view to providing the cover, and we provided the data to the ministry,” Marwa said.

“Later in 2019-20, a budget of Sh600 million was provided for this activity but this could only cover the beneficiaries for one month. In the absence of getting the required Sh6 billion, it was decided to reallocate this amount to cover some beneficiaries in the programme as part of the Sh3.9 billion budget deficit.”

He spoke on Tuesday during a virtual meeting with members of National Assembly’s Labour committee.

According to Marwa, the Inua Jamii programme had a Sh3.99 billion deficit this financial year.

The programme had a budget of Sh29.6 billion for the elderly people, orphans and vulnerable group and people with severe disability but only Sh25.6 billion was allocated during this 2019-20 financial year.

The Ministry of Labour is implementing three cash transfer programmes that constitute the National Safety Net Programmes (NSNP).

The programmes started on a pilot basis where beneficiaries used to receive as little as Sh500 per month. Over time, this amount was reviewed upwards to Sh1,500 and gradually to the current Sh2,000 per month paid bi-monthly.

Edited by A.N