KEY POINT
- National Assembly and The Senate are duplicating roles, and that is costly to the taxpayers.
- Over five committees in the two Houses are probing the alleged misappropriation of Covid-19 funds.
- MPs are led by Opiyo Wandayi and John Mbadi are questioning the mandate of the Senate in the matter.
In a move to find answers on where the Covid-19 billions went, taxpayers will incur huge expenses as the two Houses of parliament probe the Kemsa scandal.
This is after the probes once again exposed costly duplication of roles and conflict between the Senate and the National Assembly.
Around five House committees are conducting parallel investigations and the taxpayers have to bear the burden of the huge cost involved.
Each ordinary MP in the committees will get sitting allowances of Sh5,000 per sitting and Sh8,000 for the chairperson. Each committee has around 19 members, translating into about Sh100,000 will per sitting per committee if all members are present.
Most witnesses appearing before the lawmakers are also paid travel and accommodation allowances with some of them coming with big delegations.
Since the question of misappropriation of Covid-19 funds arose, lawmakers in the two House of Parliament have undertaken uncoordinated probes, summoning the same witnesses to respond to almost the same questions.
The probe at Kenya Medical Supplies Agencies (Kemsa) is handled by the Health Committee, the Public Investments Committee (PIC), and the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the National Assembly. While in Senate, the case is before the Health Committee and the Ad Hoc Committee on Covid-19.
Questions have arisen on whether some of the committees have a has legal mandate to probe the alleged misappropriation of funds that involves both the Ministry of Health and Kemsa.
The Senate Ad Hoc Committee on Covid-19 was the first to pronounce itself on the scandal, ordering the Auditor General to conduct a special audit on the expenditure of Covid-19 equipment.
The also directed the Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakang’o to provide it with a special budget review implementation of reports on the use of Covid-19 funds in the county governments.
The Senate Committee on Health and the Ad Hoc committee as well as the National Assembly Health Committee led by Sabina Chege have separately summoned the Health ministry’s top officials.
The move has caused friction between the two House, with PAC saying it is the only parliamentary panel with the legal mandate to probe the issue.
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“Our decision supersedes any other decision made by any other committee and any debate going on out there should be presumed as premature,” PAC chair and Ugunja MP Opiyo Wandayi said.
“I don’t know what role an Ad Hoc Committee can have to direct a special audit report,” he added.
Weighing on the matter, the National Assembly Minority leader John Mbadi said the probe should only be taken by one committee of Parliament to avoid, among other things, a situation where the committees give conflicting reports on the same issue.
“I think we are becoming a country that works on impulses; we are not structured in the way we do things. Parliament, being an oversight institution, should come in and investigate it but I think at this point we should have one committee to have a go and that should be the Health committee,” Mbadi told the Star.
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