CIC bosses to pocket Sh35m allowance each in six months

Members of the Charles Nyachae-led Commission for the Implementation of the Constitution (CIC) are set to pocket a Sh315 million golden parachute when their term of service comes to an end later this year.

Details of the hefty send-off package are contained in Budget estimates that the Treasury has proposed for the nine commissioners’ personal allowances in the final six months of their term which ends in December.

The total amount allocated means each commissioner will earn Sh35 million in the six-month period, representing a 290 per cent jump from the current financial year.

Each of the nine commissioners currently draws an average of Sh747,000 in allowances every month and the massive increase in their budget is thought to include gratuity payments as their term comes to an end. The Treasury allocated Sh80.7 million for their allowances this financial year.

The proposed payments signal the huge burden taxpayers have shouldered due to the numerous commissions created by the Constitution. Treasury secretary Henry Rotich has indicated in his Budget proposals now before Parliament that the commission’s term is set to end in December – meaning the entire Sh315 million set aside for the commissioners’ allowances will be spent in six months.

Mr Nyachae said he was not aware of the allocation, adding that the Treasury is responsible for setting their remuneration which is paid through the Consolidated Fund. The allowances, he said, are not part of the CIC’s annual budget request to the Treasury.

“I think there is a problem. Sh315 million is more than the entire CIC budget,” he said. “Unless they are talking about gratuity. The commission’s term is coming to an end and the gratuity is set in the commissioners’ contracts.”

Each commissioner is entitled to a gratuity of 30 per cent of their basic pay for every month served.

On average, each commissioner earns Sh700,000 in basic pay, which at 30 per cent translates to a total of Sh113.4 million for the nine commissioners. Including half of the Sh80.7 million that the commissioners earned in allowances this financial year brings the total to about Sh150 million, leaving more than Sh150 million unexplained.

Sarah Serem, whose Salaries and Remuneration Commission is charged with setting the pay of state and public officers, said she was unaware of the allocation even as she noted that the CIC has a set salary structure.

“CIC came in before us. Their salaries were set before we came into office,” she said. The Sh315 million is allocated under the Consolidated Fund services that only caters for the commissioners’ pay. The rest of the commission staff are paid from the budgetary allocation to the CIC.

“The remuneration and benefits payable to or in respect of a commissioner or the holder of an independent office shall be a charge on the Consolidated Fund,” the Constitution says.

This means that any gratuity for the CIC staff would have to be included in the commission’s budget. Mr Nyachae admitted as much, saying commissioners’ salaries are not part of the CIC budget.

“That is paid directly pursuant to Article 249 (of the Constitution) from the Consolidated Fund. Everyone else is paid from the CIC budget.”

The estimates do not indicate the reason behind the huge increase in personal allowances allocation. Puzzlingly, the Treasury recently expressed unease with the CIC’s budget request where, in a note to Parliament, Mr Rotich proposed that the commission’s budget be cut by Sh100 million to reduce the agency’s recurrent expenditure to Sh212 million from an earlier request of Sh312 million.

“The commission is expected to wind up in the middle of FY2015/2016,” he said, as he justified the cut.

Attempts to reach Mr Rotich for a comment were unsuccessful as his phone went unanswered.

The estimates also show that the salaries of Mr Nyachae, his deputy and the seven other commissioners will rise from Sh77 million to Sh78 million despite the fact that they will only serve for half the next financial year.

If Parliament approves the budget, the commissioners will draw a basic salary that’s more than double their current pay over six months.

CIC was formed in January 2011 to manage the transition to the new constitutional dispensation, especially in the crafting of new legislation and aligning old laws with the new Constitution.

The agency is expected to focus on completion of the Schedule 5 bills and policies, archive its files and publish its final report in the last six months of its tenure.

READ: Now MPs query huge foreign funding for CIC

The Treasury’s provisioning for such a huge amount of money stands at odds with the commission, which has on multiple occasions opposed payment of salaries that are not anchored in law.

In 2013, Mr Nyachae was one of the more vocal opponents to the National Assembly’s attempts to set their own salaries, insisting that was the role of the SRC. The legislators were at the time battling the CIC and SRC over the slashing of their salaries from Sh851,000 to Sh532,500.

At the height of the controversy, MPs announced plans to introduce a bill to trim the size of commissions and turn them into part time jobs, as they sought to “cut the agencies down to size”.

Mr Nyachae also criticised a hefty retirement package for retired presidents, saying that the law authorising the pension plan was passed illegally.

He, however, remains one of the highest paid commissioners drawing a salary of more than Sh1.2 million per month. His deputy earns more than Sh1.1 million.

Besides Parliament, the outspoken commission has severally criticised the Executive, including the president, over statements or actions it considered to be in violation of the Constitution. Recently, CIC criticised Parliament for passing bills that it said did not go through as required by law.

While the Senate Finance Committee has proposed that the commission’s term be extended, according to the CIC Act only the National Assembly has the powers to extend its tenure.