Tana River Assembly gets clean bill of health over MCAs mileage allowance

The Tana River County Assembly has received a clean bill of health from a Senate oversight committee for the use of public funds in the financial year ending June 2021.

The development comes after most of the audit queries raised by the Auditor General during the period under review were declared resolved.

Appearing before the Senate Committee on Public Accounts, the Speaker of the Assembly, Osman Galole, and the Clerk, Abdullahi Hussein, satisfied the committee and the auditors with their explanations on various expenditures incurred by the assembly.

The assembly had been questioned about unjustified mileage allowances paid to MCAs to facilitate travel between their homes and the county assembly office.

Mr Hussein told the committee that the mileage allowance payments were made strictly in accordance with the law, with the distances between the MCAs' homes and the assembly office confirmed by the state Department of Public Works.

The committee, chaired by Homa Bay Senator Moses Kajwang', was convinced that this was a good use of public funds.

Speaker's residence

The assembly was also praised for budgeting for the construction of a speaker's residence at less than the Sh35 million set by the SRC.

"This is the first county assembly I have seen that has budgeted only Sh28 million for the construction of the Speaker's residence when others have budgets of over Sh65 million," said Nyandarua Senator John Methu.

However, the construction of the Speaker's residence was an audit issue after the Hola Town project was abandoned.

Mr Hussein told the committee that the Assembly had since terminated the original contractor and re-advertised the project, with interested companies given until  October 27, 2023 to submit their tender documents.

The other audit issue resolved concerned the payment of per diems for domestic travel and subsistence.

The clerk pointed out that the payments are made to facilitate officers and MCAs to carry out certain activities within the budget lines by providing payment vouchers to support the expenditure, including an internal memo authorising the expenditure, invoices where vehicles were hired to ferry members, the attendance register and the programme and report for the training.

"Within the Assembly, per diems are mostly directed towards issues that enhance the main functions of an Assembly, which are legislation, oversight and representation," said Mr Hussein.

He said the MCAs and staff now support their domestic travel and subsistence within and outside the county.

The Assembly also provided evidence of Sh2.57 million spent on office and general supplies, including procurement and payment documents to support the expenditure.

The assembly also supported training costs for MCAs and staff, which the clerk said are incurred once MCAs and officers are trained by facilitators who could be government institutions or private consultants.

"The training needs assessment report is used to determine the courses that each member of staff will attend from time to time and is intended to enhance their knowledge and skills in various areas that will add value to the work of the county assembly," he said.

The committee heard that the Assembly has complied with the staffing guidelines of the Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA) and that the Assembly currently has 75 employees.

However, Speaker Galole told the committee that the staff cap imposed by the CRA means that they cannot recruit more staff and are now forced to promote internally, even unqualified staff.

Senator Kajwang' advised the assembly to write to the CRA to review the cap as the assembly needs to recruit qualified people for effective functioning.

"You can't solve the systemic problems of the Assembly if you don't have qualified people to run the Assembly. You have to go to the CRA," he said.

The assembly was also faulted for budgeting Sh6 million as a contribution to the County Assemblies Forum, with the committee saying it doesn't recognise such bodies.