Councillors to receive K52mil

ALL outstanding monthly allowance will be paid to local-level government (LLG) councillors before the end of this month, an official says.
Department of provincial and LLG affairs special purpose authority (SPA) director Lason Thomas told The National yesterday that K72 million in accumulated outstanding allowances were released by Government last year.
Thomas said K20 million had been paid out, including a K2000-each payment at the end of last year. He said the remaining K52 million would be used to settle the balance up to December 2018.
Meanwhile, dates for the LLG election have not been set and confirmed, as it will need additional funds to pay councillors up to the return of writs.
“The money is with the department of provincial affairs,” Thomas said.
“We will do the payments before the end of this month so that councillors can meet school fee needs.
“On behalf of the department, ministry and Government, I would like to thank the councillors
for their patience and understanding.”
Thomas said the policy to increase monthly allowance of LLG councillors and paying ward recorders through a payroll system on a monthly basis was one of the Government’s major policies.
It recognises the important roles LLG leaders play in improving governance and service delivery at lower levels of government.
In 2014, the following decisions were made by the National Executive Council (NEC) regarding the policy:

• Increase of monthly and sitting allowances for LLG members;
• monthly allowance for ward recorders; and,
• Department of Finance to allocate K48 million to implement these increases and variations; and
• Department of Provincial and LLG Affairs to manage the K48 million and pay monthly allowances according to the approved rates.

As per the specific policy directives, the payments should be done consistently on a monthly basis.
However, due to insufficient funds since 2015 until late last year, accumulated of huge outstanding allowances.
Thomas said there were 6187 councillors in 319 LLGs.