The Council of Legal Education (CLE) is under scrutiny over Sh2.8 million paid to examiners, invigilators and moderators amid concerns that the allowances were issued without approval from the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC).
Members of Parliament sitting on the National Assembly’s Public Investments Committee on Governance and Education questioned the basis for determining the payments, arguing that the council may have bypassed guidelines on public allowances.
The MPs raised the concerns during a committee sitting at Bunge Towers, where they examined the Auditor General reports covering the financial years 2021/2022 to 2024/2025.
The committee, chaired by its vice chairperson and Kasipul MP Boyd Ong’ondo Were, questioned Council of Legal Education Chief Executive Officer Prof Busalie Jack Mwimali over payments linked to examination setting, marking and moderation.
Prof Mwimali told the committee that the payments were made to external professionals, including judges, magistrates and practising advocates, who were contracted to offer examination services on short-term assignments.
“First of all, if I may have appeared to be adamant to the committee, that’s not the case. I have a lot of respect for the authority of the committee,” Mwimali said.
He explained that the council had relied on procurement procedures because the professionals involved were not its salaried employees.
“When we do the setting, marking and moderation of these exams, we bring in outsiders who are not our salaried employees,” he said.
“The council has taken the process of using procurement methods because these are specialised categories of professionals.”
However, MPs questioned the explanation, saying the use of procurement procedures did not remove the requirement for SRC approval where payments were made as allowances to individuals.
MP Were challenged the CEO on whether the council was disputing the findings of the Auditor General. “So you’re trying to tell us, as a committee, that the auditor is wrong?” Were posed.
Embakasi West MP Mark Mwenje said the council was making the issue more complicated despite similar arrangements being used by other public institutions.
“What you are doing is not unique. IEBC does the same thing. They recruit temporary staff for a specific period, seek SRC guidance on allowances, pay them, and that’s it,” Mwenje said.
He added that while procurement procedures applied when hiring services, payments made directly to individuals as allowances required SRC approval.
“If you are procuring services, that falls under the Procurement and Disposal Act. But if you are paying allowances to individuals, then SRC must approve,” he said.
He cautioned the council against “reinventing the wheel”, saying Parliament and other public institutions had previously dealt with similar issues before aligning their payments with SRC requirements.
Imenti Central MP Moses Kirima also faulted the council’s position, saying constitutional requirements on public expenditure must be followed.
“The Constitution is supreme. There is no other law or institution beyond the Constitution. When it is said that SRC approval is not needed, it means somebody is undermining the Constitution,” Kitima said.
Kirima called for an audit of the payments to establish what each officer was entitled to receive and whether the amounts paid exceeded approved SRC rates.
“We want auditors to establish what each person was entitled to and compare it with what was actually paid so that responsibility can be fixed,” he said.
Auditors also questioned the basis used by the council to set the rates paid to examiners and invigilators. “The challenge we are facing is that we do not know the basis of the rates they are paying,” an auditor told the committee.
Prof Mwimali admitted that some of the rates were based on previous practices that started when the council began independently managing examinations after separating from the Kenya School of Law examination process.
“These are historical practices since the council started the assessment process in 2016,” he said.
He added that the council would review the matter and seek guidance from SRC on the applicable rates. “We will actually go and get those rates from SRC,” he assured the MPs.
The committee directed the Council of Legal Education to submit detailed information on the payments, including the job classifications and criteria used in determining allowances paid to contracted professionals.
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