Judiciary officials asked to pay back millions acquired illegally

Chairman of Public Accounts Committee Ababu Namwamba (right) with members Jackson Rop (centre) and Joseph Manje when they met former Judiciary Registrar Gladys Shollei in Parliament on Thursday.  [PHOTO: BONIFACE OKENDO/STANDARD]

Kenya: Top Judiciary officers, including judges and other non-commissioners, have been asked to pay back irregular allowances running to more than Sh9.8 million they received between August and December last year.

Another Sh1.6 million paid to commissioners in allowances for meetings that did not have a quorum should also be recovered, according to the Auditor General.

According to a special audit report by the Office of the Auditor General, 17 judges and nine top Judiciary officers have been listed as among those who are required to reimburse funds irregularly claimed as allowances.

Ordinarily, non-commissioners are required to receive Sh10,000 as sitting allowances, but the affected officers received Sh80,000 per sitting.

Audit report

“During the JSC Finance and Administration Committee meeting held on July 15, 2011, it was resolved that officers seconded to the commission would be paid sitting allowance at the rate of Sh10,000,” the report reads in part.

The report that was tabled in Parliament on Wednesday for further scrutiny discloses that at least one official will be required to refund up to a tune of more than Sh4.9 million. JSC registrar Winfrida Mokaya, according to the report, attended 70 meetings between August and December last year irregularly receiving Sh5.6 million instead of Sh700,000.

Between January 2011 and July 2013,Ms Mokaya earned Sh 8.6 million in allowances.

Efforts to contact her were futile as she could not pick our calls only responding to text messages saying: “I am driving.”

Another official, John Tamar, who attended a total of 20 meetings is required to refund Sh1.4 million. Judges listed in the report as part of non-commissioners who received irregular allowances will refund between Sh70,000 and Sh490,000.

But the amount is expected to be even higher, for some officers who received allowances during 2011/2012 financial year, that have not been factored in the audit report.

Appearing before Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to respond to finding of the report, former Chief Registrar of the Judiciary Gladys Shollei, said payment of allowances to non-commissioners was sanctioned by the Finance Committee of the JSC.

“The committee was headed by former Law Society of Kenya representative Ahmednassir Abdullahi alongside commissioners Florence Mwangangi, Emily Ominde, Justice Smokin Wanjala and Rev Samuel Kobia,” she said.

Ballooning wage bill

According to Judiciary records, more than 400 meetings were held between 2011 and 2013, some of them being human resource meetings, finance committee meetings and ad hoc meetings.

Last year, this paper revealed how commissioners earned millions of shillings in sitting allowances that raised public debate with PAC commissioning a detailed audit of the JSC and Judiciary.

Commissioner Christine Mango, for instance, earned more than Sh17,488,000 in two years, while commissioner Mwangangi earned Sh18,216,000 over a similar period.

Chief Justice Willy Mutunga had earned Sh1.76 million, while Mrs Shollei had earned Sh2.8 million in the same period.

Interestingly, as some of the recommendations of the report, some commissioners will be required to reimburse allowances they earned from meetings that were not properly executed.

Without quorum

“Section 22 of the Judicial Service Act provides that the quorum for the commission and any of its committee shall be six and three respectively. JSC therefore illegally paid sitting allowances totalling to Sh1.6 million,” the report reads.

Mrs Shollei has since informed PAC that meetings that were executed without a quorum were held behind her back and allowances consequently claimed without her knowledge.

“My proposal to reduce the number of meetings to five or make a standard allowance of Sh400,000 per month as a cost-cutting measure was rejected by the commission,” she said.

Payment of hefty allowances by the Judiciary to its officers has come  under criticism even as the country continues to grapple with tough economic times and a ballooning wage bill.

Several officials from the Judiciary have been summoned by PAC before the committee makes its recommendations to the House on way forward.