Parliamentary staff decry salary delays
What you need to know:
Each constituency receives Sh1.4 million quarterly for office operations.
The money is only released after the constituency manager has filed a return of the disbursement of the previous quarter.
The Clerk of the National Assembly Michael Sialai has told parliamentary staff who feel mistreated by MPs to take their cases to constituency liaison officer.
Mr Sialai admitted that his office has received complaints of long working hours and late payment of salaries from the staff.
He told Nation such cases were rampant in the 11th Parliament, but had been resolved. On the late payment of salaries, he said it depends with the time constituency managers bring their returns to Parliament.
Each constituency receives Sh1.4 million quarterly for office operations. The money is only released after the constituency manager has filed a return of the disbursement of the previous quarter.
ANONYMITY
Mr Sialai said cases of mistreatment should be handled by constituency liaison officer Agnes Kamoni and with the MP in a formal way as stated in the contract.
“We have constituency regulations that clearly state how to deal with cases of discipline and even separation,” Mr Sialai said.
He said Parliament will organise a training for the staff between January and February next year, where all the issues affecting them will be addressed.
“I will attend the training and I can assure you the issues will be addressed,” he said. Ms Kamoni, who is supposed to deal with such cases before escalating them to the Clerk, did not receive our calls or respond to text messages. But the parliamentary staff who spoke to Nation on condition of anonymity said they fear reporting their bosses to Ms Kamoni because they might lose their jobs, and thus have resorted to suffer in silence. The workers complained of being made to do menial tasks on top of running personal errands for the MPs, which are not stated in their job descriptions.
