Members of Parliament have rushed to cash in on the High Court order that lifted the ban on free cars to hurriedly process their grants.
The ink had not dried on Justice Odunga's December 15 order before the mad rush for car grants began.
The Star has established that the Parliamentary Service Commission — the statutory employer — has already received applications from over 300 of the 416 MPs.
More are still picking up and dropping the forms.
“We continue to receive more forms and our projection is that each member would have submitted their application before the end of January,” said a senior member of the PSC involved in processing MPs’ grants and loans.
“As you are aware today [Wednesday] is a normal working day. We are in office with more and more forms coming,” added another top official on condition of confidentiality.
The MPs have up to three months to shop around and prepare purchase documents for cars worth up to a ceiling of Sh5 million.
The dash is to beat the window given by the High Court that suspended the new pay perks for MPs until the case is heard. The case comes up for hearing towards the end of next moth and MPs have pressured the PSC to process the grants before then.
Despite harsh public criticism and lamentations by Treasury about the runaway public sector wage bill, Kenya's bloated Parliament has been defensive of its huge perks.
MPs are required to include invoices and car purchase documents or — in cases where there are no documents — undertakings to provide the documents within three months of receiving the money.
The money is to be wired to the MPs' accounts from January, or whenever it will be provided, after many new MPs complained of being forced to hire taxis to make their way to Parliament.
The Salaries and Remuneration Commission had abolished the free cars in the revised pay package for the MPs gazetted in July before the election.
But in the case before the court, the PSC argued that the car grant was a facilitate allowance previously given to State officers serving in Parliament.
Read:Uhuru backs SRC salary slash, seeks MPs support
The PSC said giving car grants was a cheaper alternative to providing and maintaining official cars for MPs due to the distance and the terrain lawmakers cover as they travel to and from their constituencies.
Coming from expensive electioneering, most MPs are financially strained and the court order was a timely relief. They immediately resumed their higher salaries and allowances halted by the implementation of the SRC's gazette notice on reduced perks for State and public officers.
Under the old 2013/14 pay structure, which the PSC has reverted to, MPs take home vast allowances, free healthcare and retirement benefits, hefty salaries, armed security and other privileges. MPs will now be earning a basic salary of Sh710,000, but could take home as much as Sh1.1 million monthly, including allowances.
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They are also entitled to Sh5,000 sitting allowance every time they clock in for the plenary session, Sh5,000 for each committee sitting.
The taxpayer could soon be more overburdened if the country's 2,222 MCAs sitting in the county assemblies lay stake to the car grants that were also affected in the SRC’s latest pay review.
The Auditor General has already warned that taxpayers risk losing billions of shillings in unsecured loans to MCAs countrywide.
When contacted yesterday, Senate Clerk Jeremiah Nyegenye, who doubles as secretary and accounting officer for the PSC, refused to comment.
“I wish to refer you to the National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi, who is the chairman of the PSC, and therefore the official spokesperson,” Nyegenye said.
However, Muturi was unavailable.
Even vocal Homa Bay Woman Representative Gladys Wanga — a member of the commission who has previously called for better pay perks — declined to comment.
MPs’ pay perks are a hot potato that few legislators dare to comment about for fear of public reprisals. In August, Kiambu residents reacted angrily and began collecting signatures to impeach their Woman Representative, Gathoni wa Mucomba, after she opposed the gazetted new salaries.
By reinstating the Sh2 billion car kitty, the 12th Parliament has managed to deflate moves by the State to curb the explosion of the Sh627 billion public wage bill.
The Sh2 billion car kitty is already included in the Sh36 billion budget for Parliament passed by the House in March, before the SRC gazetted the new terms four months later. Surprisingly, the revised budget tabled in October did not reallocate the money.
Amid tough times and the heavy tax burden, each Kenyan — of the estimated population of 49.7 million — will be Sh44 the poorer to fund each of the 416 MPs with a tax-free car.
The lawmakers are also entitled to a car loan of up to Sh7 million on their second car, recoverable from their pay slips every month.
They also enjoy weekly mileage reimbursements for using the vehicles bought through the House car grants.
The SRC had scrapped the car grant and instead introduced a Sh7 million car loan and monthly mileage allowance based on the distance covered. It also took away the sitting allowance, reduced the MPs’ basic salary to Sh621,250 and introduced tough regulations governing the loans, including a requirement for MPs to deposit security for the amount advanced.
The Sarah Serem-led SRC left office on December 15, three days before the Parliamentary Service Commission obtained the court order suspending the terms.
The current PSC’s term hasn’t expired as they remain in office until their successors take over as stipulated in Article 127 of the Constitution.
There has been intense lobbying for nominations to the commission, seen as the most lucrative, amid claims that the current commissioners schemed to reintroduce the car grant to woo lawmakers to retain them.
Lucrative
The Commission is comprised of 11 commissioners, including two non-MPs, who draw allowances amounting to Sh40,000 per sitting while ordinary MPs earn Sh5,000 per House or committee sitting.
The commissioners also chair subcommittees where they enjoy immense privileges, including employment opportunities and influencing the award of lucrative tenders.
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