Nyanza region County representatives at loggerheads with Salaries and Remuneration

By Rushdie Oudia

Kisumu, Kenya: Members of the County Assembly from Nyanza have rejected a job evaluation audit report by Salaries and Remuneration (SRC).

The MCAs poked holes on the report which the County Assemblies Forum (CAF) had demanded to see on what basis SRC was insisting on the re-evaluation to deal with the salary stalemate.

County Assemblies Forum Chair Abdi Noor accused SRC of kick starting job evaluation yet they had not agreed on the same.

Noor said the forum met with SRC to negotiate on the salaries issues yet what they were given were only extracts of the said report that was prepared by Price Water Coopers (PWC).

The alleged report was carried out in the first evaluation. In the report, extracts of grading lacked the SRC and PWC emblem that had appeared in all the pages, making it suspicious to be part of the alleged report.

Noor said the report reached SRC on March 11 this year yet the salaries were decided on March 1, just before the elections. SRC defended itself, claiming they used the draft report to determine salaries.

The forum Chair asked how salaries could be decided on March 1 yet the commission received the report ten days later.

 “How can you tell if the final report will be the same as the draft for you to use it in determining salaries?” asked Noor.

Speaking in Kisumu, Noor said SRC Chair Sarah Serem said they could not give out the entire report because of security reasons, however later the form was given the whole report.

When the forum received the report, it had more anomalies with the report stating that they received draft document on February 28 and not March 11.

In the reports also, the statement ‘grading report’ had been changed to ‘grading result’ meaning it was no longer a report  making the forum to question how a report preceded results.

The forum also questioned how PWC adopted their report, sent it too SRC and the commission forwarded it to government printers on the same day for gazettement.

The MCAs clarified that all these mishaps in the report makes them wonder if indeed the commission used job evaluation to determine their salaries.

“SRC cannot be trusted if they doctor reports,” said Noor, adding that questionnaires on Members of the National Assembly who were interviewed were also missing from the alleged report.

The Kisumu meeting brought together all MCAs from Nyanza and the executive council members of the CAF where they resolved they will not relent in their push for better remuneration.

Mandera County Speaker Abdiqadir Sheikh said they are not on strike but on recess and that they will only continue with the committee sittings not plenary until their demands are met.

His Kisumu counterpart Anne Adul accused Constitution Implementation Committee (CIC) Chair Charles Nyachae of inciting the public against them and that their fight is for a good cause.

Ms Adul said even MPs were not evaluated before they were remunerated.