National Treasury CS John Mbadi has said there is no legal basis to implement proposed one-off honorarium of Sh200,000 to former councillors who served less than four consecutive terms.
On Wednesday, the CS said following review of recommendations of a taskforce, established to look into the matter, the Attorney General, in an advisory dated May 8, 2023 concluded that there is no legal foundation for implementing the proposed one-off honorarium.
He said the conclusion was based on absence of a legal instrument anchoring such payment, the inconsistency of the proposal with established public service pension principles as well as a circular No. 13/94, which only recognises councillors with 20 years of continuous service as eligible for pension or gratuity. "As such, implementing the recommendations - particularly for the 11,919 councillors who served fewer than four terms - would amount to creating a new benefit structure without necessary statutory basis.
This would contravene principles of public finance management and expose the government to potential audit and legal risk," Mbadi said.
