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Cities Kenya officials earn Sh200,000 per diem
Senior government officials are raking in nearly Sh200,000 a day on official foreign travel in some selected cities, pointing to the heavy burden these trips are having on the taxpayer.
The latest review of allowances by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) shows that assignments to Singapore attract the highest per diem of Sh194,550 per day for public officers in top management, board level and policy-making cadre under Job Group F4.
These include the President, Deputy President, Cabinet Secretaries, Principal Secretaries, MPs, Senators, chief executive officers, and directors general.
This means that when a senior government official goes for a six-day assignment, for example, to the Asian city-state, they will earn more than Sh1 million.
Other countries that have attractive per diems are Iraq with a daily subsistence allowance (DSA) or per diem of Sh186,750, Kuwait (Sh174,300), Japan and Liechtenstein (Sh166,650), Israel (Sh165,750), Monaco (Sh165,000) and Lebanon (Sh161,550), and Surinam (Sh158,850).
Per diems are paid per day to cover travel-related expenditures in connection with work done away from home.
There are six job groups, with the lowest Job Group A-E, getting a per diem of $366 (Sh54,900) for an official assignment to Singapore.
With increased vigilance on wages, whose increase has to be approved by the SRC, State corporations were likely fiddling with allowances to rake in more from the State coffers, said John Mutua, a programme coordinator at the Institute of Economic Affairs Kenya, a think-tank.
“Per diems offer an avenue for abuse by government officials,” said Mr Mutua, recommending a cap on the number of meetings held.
Although there is little change between the latest per diem rates published by SRC on August 7, 2023, and those that the commission published in December 2014, the mere fact that they are paid in dollars means that the take-home perks have increased significantly.
For example, while the per diem for Singapore remains unchanged at $1,297, the shilling–equivalent in December 2014 was Sh117,757.
The exchange rate between the shilling and the dollar has depreciated with the local currency exchanging at 150.86 on Thursday compared to 90.79 on December 30, 2014.
Frequently visited countries such as those in Europe and North America do not feature high in the list with hefty per diem payments. In Africa, travelling to Ethiopia attracts the highest per diem payment at Sh121,350 for top brass.
It was not immediately clear what criteria the SRC uses to assign these rates. Business Daily called the SRC chairperson, Lynn Mengich, but she had not responded by the time of going to press.
Outrage over President William Ruto’s globetrotting record has forced him to offer the public an explanation, noting that through the trips he has been able to sign bilateral agreements that will help the country.
“Concerning the noise about foreign travel, that is my job as President. I am the chief agent of Kenya, I am the ambassador of Kenyan planning on how the country moves forward,” said Dr Ruto.
“As the chief agent and chief ambassador of our country, these foreign trips that people are making noise about are crucial because we can look for opportunities for Kenyans,” he explained.
Dr Ruto made his first foreign trip as Kenya’s fifth head of State to the UK for the State funeral of Queen Elizabeth II between September 19 and 20.
In the last 14 months, the President has visited the US, UK, France, Belgium, China, the Netherlands, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, South Africa, South Korea, and Switzerland. Others are Zambia, Burundi, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Tanzania and Uganda.
The President has also travelled with a huge delegation, a situation that has not pleased him, according to Dr David Ndii, an economic adviser to the Head of State.
“I have watched even the President frustrated…On foreign trips, ‘this is the limit of the number of people that we are going to take on foreign trips.’ He (President Ruto) gets there, there are three times the number,” said Dr Ndii in an interview in April.
A 2014, a working paper by the African Development Bank found that such a huge delegation of joyriders might be due to the high per diem rates.
The study found that as the allowance grows, the incentive of individuals relevant to a project decreases while that of outsiders increases.
“Explaining for example why paying high per diem rates for a meeting will increase the probability of having inappropriate people attending,” read part of the report.
The budget for foreign travel for the Office of the President, including the deputy, has been reduced by Sh16 million in the year ending June 2024 following budgetary changes that were tabled in Parliament last week.
In the financial year that ended June, the national government spent Sh6.3 billion on foreign travel, double the Sh3 billion that was spent the previous financial year, data from the Controller of Budget shows.
Between July last year and June this year, the Office of the President spent Sh361.77 million, more than four times the Sh84.17 million that was spent in the previous fiscal period.
Before he was moved to the Public Service docket, former Trade Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria was the most travelled minister in Ruto’s administration, having been out of the country on at least 18 occasions in the first 100 days since taking office.
Mr Kuria’s globe-trotting intensified with his ministry’s expenditure on foreign travel rising more than three-fold to Sh51.34 million in the period under review compared to Sh14.27 million in a similar time in 2021.
In February alone, Mr Kuria travelled to 10 countries around the world, meeting 11 Presidents and the former Tanzanian Head of State, Jakaya Kikwete.
