EACC grills MCAs over Sh62 million travel allowances

KENYA: A section of Murang’a County Assembly members yesterday fought off claims that they pocketed allowances for non-existent trips.

The MCAs have been accused of falsifying travel allowances amounting to Sh62.5 million. They appeared individually at the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) offices in Nyeri and presented their original passports for scrutiny.

Sources privy to the investigations said all the 49 MCAs including 20 other officers are expected to be questioned.
Each MCA received a letter from EACC Regional Director Jackson Mue, who requested them to present all the documents they used for their travel.

“You are required to present yourself at the regional office in Nyeri with your original passport and any other document used for travel,” the letter served to the MCAs read in part.

Mue, however, declined to comment on the issue, saying he would speak after investigations are over.

Some MCAs are alleged to have used fake documents indicating they travelled out of Kenya for five days, yet they were in the country all along. It is claimed that some of the MCAs inflated the number of days they travelled supported by fake documents to receive allowances.

 

SIX TRIPS

One of the MCAs who talked to The Standard but did not want to be named said the investigations would not yield much “because all these trips are above board”.

According to the Auditor General’s report released last year, the MCAs made six trips to Tanzania, Netherlands, Uganda, South Africa, Israel and Singapore at a cost of Sh62.5 million.

The report claims the assembly overshot the budget by Sh6,281,263 without the approval of the Controller of Budget. It indicates the trip to Uganda cost Sh6,428,541 and was made by 31 MCAs and seven staff between  September 30 and October 6, 2013. It was an educational tour on agriculture.

The Tanzanian trip cost taxpayers Sh6,880,710, with 24 MCAs and 13 members of staff attending it. The auditor’s report points out that 15 MCAs who travelled to South Africa incurred Sh6,567,393. The purpose of the trip was to attend an agricultural trade show.

For the Singapore trip, 12 MCAs and five staff spent Sh12,592,370 between May 31, 2014 and June 8, 2014.

Subsequently, Sh9,463,673 was used for Netherlands trip on agribusiness made by 17 MCAs and four staff between June 21 and 28,2014.

The total cost of the trip to Israel was Sh20,348,676 by 17 MCAs and four staff members between June 10 and June 18, 2014. It was a benchmarking trip on agriculture.
Further, it was noted in the report that some officers were paid daily subsistence allowances for more than the days they were out of the country, totalling Sh386,644.