House budget team wants economic audit of Constitution

Parliament Tuesday set the stage for constitutional changes after it ordered for an audit of the supreme law to determine whether it is suited to the country’s social and economic realities.

The National Assembly’s Budget and Appropriations Committee ordered for the audit after it cut the Treasury’s budget by more than Sh5.3 billion and redirected the savings to finance MPs’ mortgage and car loan schemes.

The committee also gave the Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC) Sh80 million for to undertake a socio-economic audit of the Kenyan Constitution in a move that is seen as setting the stage for constitutional reforms that some parliamentarians have recently suggested are needed to cut the public wage Bill.

The PSC, which is chaired by National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi, is expected to establish a working group to assess the impact of the Constitution on the national economy and in particular its public finances and report to Parliament within 90 days.

Auditor-General Edward Ouko is expected to head the working group.

“The terms of reference of the working group will be to make recommendations to the National Assembly on potential measures that could enhance prudent management of the country’s public resources,” the report of the committee on the Supplementary Budget says.

The committee, which scrutinised the Treasury’s proposals for the Sh121.5 billion mini budget, cut Sh5.3 billion that the ministry set aside as budget reserves in its own budget.

READ: MPs seek Sh7.8bn for mortgage, car loans and mileage

The team, chaired by Mbeere South MP Mutava Musyimi, gave the PSC Sh5 billion for parliamentarians’ mortgage and car loan scheme that the Salaries and Remuneration Commission gazetted last year.

Each of the 416 Members of Parliament is entitled to a Sh7 million car loan and Sh20 million home loan that is repayable within the current parliamentary term.

The National Assembly has 349 members while the Senate has 67. In his request for additional funding of Parliament’s budget two weeks ago, PSC secretary Jeremiah Nyegenye said only 205 parliamentarians (Senators and MPs) had accessed the mortgage facility.

Parliament needed additional Sh2.5 billion to offer the facility to 125 more MPs. The remaining 86 parliamentarians are expected to wait till the next financial year to access the funds.

The Treasury had allocated the commission Sh500 million against a request of Sh4.5 billion.

To secure the funding, the committee slashed the Sarah Serem-led SRC’s budget by Sh50 million from the Sh170 million that the the Treasury had set aside for the public sector wage conference.

The Judiciary, which has been the subject of attack by Parliament over the controversial orders baring Senators from summoning governors to respond to audit quarries, lost Sh500 million meant for construction of court buildings.

The National Gender and Equality Commission and the Ministry of Planning and Devolution also had their budgets cut by Sh40 million and Sh293 million respectively.

The Devolution ministry lost Sh49 million meant for human resources management services while the Treasury’s Sh126 million for temporary employees was reallocated to other areas.

“The expenditure cuts are aimed at curbing non-priority use of public resources and expenditure increments are informed by core needs identified through concerted effort by the Budget and Appropriation committee as well as submissions from departmental committees,” said Mr Musyimi in the committee report.

The list of government agencies that suffered budget cuts includes Konza Techno-polis Authority which lost Sh100 million to the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology to support operations in development.

READ: Kibaki projects hit by shortage of funds

The committee also reallocated Sh150 million from Kenya Power and Lighting Company to the Nuclear Energy board in the Ministry of Energy.

The Transport ministry received Sh100 million for the construction of Gotu killer bridge, while the East African Affairs ministry got additional Sh167 million for operations and maintenance.

Utalii College, which falls under the same ministry, was allocated Sh500 million to pay pending bills.

The office of the Director of Public Prosecutions got a Sh300 million boost to employ additional prosecutors while the Attorney-General’s office got Sh200 million more to strengthen the department of justice.

The committee asked Parliament to approve the socio-economic audit of the Constitution promulgated in 2010 saying it was necessary in light of expansion of institutions and services.