On Wednesday, January 26, the State Department of Housing announced an upward adjustment in rent in all government-owned residential houses effective April 1, 2022.
According to the State Department, tenants will pay an additional 10 per cent to the rent they are currently charged.
“Notice is hereby given that effective April 1, 2022, rent on all government residential houses will be increased by 10 per cent of the prevailing rates,” a statement from the State Department of Housing read in part.
“These reviews will still be way below the market rate since government residential houses are part of employer-assisted housing for civil servants,†it added.
Housing Principal Secretary Charles Hinga stated that civil servants had received upward reviews in their house allowances but they continued to pay the same amount for rent.
“It is important to note that there have been several reviews on house allowance for civil servants since 2001 but the rent applicable to houses they occupy has remained largely the same over the said period,†PS Hinga stated.
A report tabled by Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu in Parliament indicated that civil servants living in government houses do not pay rent as required.
“The Department failed to put in place measures to ensure that all rent income due was collected in accordance with Regulation 43(c) of the Public Finance Management (National Government) Regulations, 2015 which requires an Accounting Officer to ensure that all Appropriations-In-Aid due to a national government entity are collected and properly accounted for in accordance with the relevant laws, rules and regulations,†Gathungu stated.
“For the government houses occupied by the county governments’ staff, deductions totalling to Ksh113,409,750 were made through the respective payrolls but only a total of Ksh16,377,978 was remitted to the State Department for Housing resulting in unremitted revenue of Ksh97,031,772 as at June 30, 2020,†she added.
Gathungu also took issue with the rent that civil servants paid, noting that the government house rents were last reviewed in 2001.
She warned that the government was losing revenue with the continuous use of outdated rental rates on houses.
Source: KENYAGIST.COM
