One of the interesting titbits in the standoff between Gladys
Shollei and a faction within the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) has
been the revelation that each member of the JSC receives Sh80,000 as
sitting allowance for every session.
This means that
each time JSC convenes with all 12 members present, the Kenyan taxpayer
is hit for Sh960,000! If JSC sits at least twice a week—in sub-committee
or full sessions to deal with finance, recruitment, court cases
etc—that translates to Sh7,680,000 per month, or Sh92,160,000 per year!
Every
member who attends two sessions per week takes home Sh640,000 per
month, for simply putting buttocks on a chair! One need not speak at the
meeting or stay till the end! This is more than what most judges and
magistrates make, they who sit day in, day out, listening to cases.
Of
these 12 members, seven are public officers getting a regular pay check
and for whom serving at the JSC is a logical part of their work!
Make
no mistake: There can never be any transformation, reform, efficiency
or progress when the underlying systems are as kleptomaniac as this. No
number of documents, philosophies or reports can take away the fact that
this “eating” can only lead to maintaining status quo.
This
fundamental attitude then gives rise to other issues perpetuating
corruption: cronyism, nepotism, and patronage. For if you earn an easy
Sh700,000 a month simply for sitting, and on top of your other income as
a judge, magistrate, lawyer, registrar or retired politician, why not
go the whole hog and treat the public purse as an ATM? It is a very thin
line to cross.
Hence the utter lack of shame when the
JSC approves purchase of a house for Sh350 million when houses in
Muthaiga go for Sh150 million.
Or that Supreme Court
judges are provided with lunch and breakfast everyday catered by Serena
Hotel. Or that a senior judge trades with the Judiciary as a supplier.
Sadly,
it is not only the JSC that treats our taxes as personal ATMs.
Parliament and the civil service are probably better at this. Now
parliamentarians are convening as many sessions as they can so that they
can sit and “eat” our taxes.
Thus, for instance,
interviews for public positions are treated as separate sessions for
each interview so as to maximise on the eating. And it is this urge to
sit that motivates parliamentary committees to convene for anything
under the sun, at the slightest provocation.
As the joke around town goes, for MPs “checks and balances mean cheques that improve their bank balances.”
For
civil servants, the impetus is creating as many cross-ministerial
committees, task forces, panels as possible to maximise on allowances
and per diems. It is about having as many forums outside the station to
get per diems.
There is a former staffer at the
Attorney General’s office who was nicknamed “Mr Per Diem” for his
efforts to ensure he attended, for the shortest time possible, every
meeting of every parastatal that required the presence of the Attorney
General. He would go in and sign off, and then leave for yet another
parastatal meeting, assured that his allowances were made.
Foreign
travel is the icing on the cake for this eating and it no wonder that
“study tours,” an area of contention within the JSC, are more common
than anything else. For here, our senior public officers beat the
richest nations on earth in terms of the amount of per diems they
receive.
This gravy train of allowances, for sitting,
standing, smiling, and just being, must stop. The system today is not
about service but about selfishness.
While taxpayers have been a humble lot, this vomiting on our shoes will have consequences, unless Sarah Serem can stop it.
No comments:
Post a Comment