JSC Authorized Irregular Allowances-PAC By David Mwere Thursday, June 12, 2014 The Judicial Service Commission was yesterday accused by a parliamentary committee of sleeping on the job by failing to provide proper oversight on the financial affairs of the Judiciary. The accusations are based on the special report by the Auditor General commissioned by the committee late last year saying the Judiciary lacked probity in its use of public funds. The JSC was particularly hard pressed by the Public Accounts Committee to explain why it authorised the payment of irregular allowances to 26 judges and two of its staff at the scale of the JSC members. The amount made to the judges was done at the time they appeared before the commission for interviews. Commission member Emily Ominde who chairs the departmental committee on Finance and Administration however, defended JSC saying they had been denied the information on the happenings by former Chief Registrar of Judiciary Gladys Shollei. The committee is responsible for the preparing the Judiciary budget and expenditure issues. Of concern and shock to the Budalangi MP Ababu Namwamba led committee, was how the JSC registrar Winifrida Mokaya and her deputy John Tamar drew super allowances more than the commissioners. “The audit report has come with great shock for some of us who had a lot of faith in the JSC when it was formed. But it regressed to the old way of doing things. What hope for justice is there if it is not for the good of justice delivery to the country,” Namwamba said. For instance, Tamar drew an average of Sh7.2 million in extra duty allowances and Sh290, 000 extraneous allowances between November 2012 and June 2013. The amount was inclusive of a record 20 meetings in during the month of June calculated at Sh80, 000 per sitting, prompting the members to question when he ever worked for the job he was hired for. On the other hand, his boss, Mokaya pocketed Sh4.9 million worth of era duty and Sh1.2 million in extraneous allowances over the same period. There was though no proper distinction between the two sets of allowances, meaning that they could be similar.
Posted on: Fri, 13 Jun 2014 09:38:59 +0000
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