I m here today because I believe deeply in parliamentary accountability and transparency, Mallard told the committee.
Addressing the committee chair, National MP Barbara Kuriger, Mallard said: I rang you to offer to appear before the committee because I felt it was important to put on record an apology and offer some context and clarifications around recent events.
Mallard made the accusation after the Debbie Francis report into bullying and harassment at Parliament was made public in May last year. He was commenting on a sexual assault accusation in the report.
The report did not identify the accused offender, which Mallard said was integral to the review, but he did acknowledge at the time that he knew who the offender was and that the staffer had been stood down.
House allowance of shame
By BUSINESS DAILY
The court’s judgment that MPs refund Sh1 million illegal house allowance is an indictment that should jolt Parliament, the Parliamentary Service Commission and the salaries agency SRC.
High Court judges found Parliament and PSC accounting officers culpable under the Public Finance Management Act and asked them to recover the allowance within a year.
We believe it is also the work of the SRC to monitor such payments to arrest any attempts to overstep one’s mandate like the PSC did in paying the Sh250,000 monthly. However, it is even more appalling for MPs, who are the people’s representatives, the lawmakers and the watchdog to have received the money with none of the 416 members raising the alarm.
MPs to refund Sh1m each in illegal house allowance businessdailyafrica.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from businessdailyafrica.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Kenya: Court Rules House Allowance Illegal, MPs to Cough Up Millions
10 December 2020
By Sam Kiplagat
In a blow to legislators, a bench of three judges has directed Senate and National Assembly clerks to recover the millions already paid out to each lawmaker within one year.
The judges further faulted the Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC) for encroaching on the mandate of the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) by granting the MPs house allowance of Sh250,000 and backdating it to 2018. The move saw each MP get about Sh1 million. It is our finding that by exercising a function not vested upon them by the Constitution, the PSC consequently violated the various constitutional provisions identified above, Justices Pauline Nyamweya, Weldon Korir and John Mativo said.
Kenya: Court Rules House Allowance Illegal, Each MP to Cough Up Millions allafrica.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from allafrica.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.