• Some of those hired irregularly 'bought' the jobs via bribes of up to Sh40k
• In a one-room ICT office, up to 18 employees used one desktop computer
Image: MATHEWS NDANYI
More than 1,000 employees of the Nandi county government stand to lose their jobs after a human resource audit revealed a massive payroll scam.
While releasing details of the audit report in Kapsabet town, Governor Stephen Sang vowed to act on it.
“We are going to implement this report fully, and anybody who in one way or another played a role in this flawed process will have to face the consequences,” he said.
The governor has suspended several payroll officers to allow for investigations into alleged irregularities in the payroll management system.
The scam caused the county wage bill to increase to more than 65 per cent of the county budget.
It caused the number of employees to increase to 4,430.
The county should have not more than 3,000 workers, and Auditor General Nancy Gathungu has been raising queries over irregular employment by the county.
The audit was done by a technical team from the Public Service Commission.
Among its findings is that some individuals in the Nandi County Public Service Board and the payroll unit have been colluding to issue irregular and fake appointment letters.
“All these irregularities led to issuance of fake appointment letters obtained through fraudulent means and which found their way into the payroll system,” Sang said.
Using the fake documents, including fake certificates, there was haphazard placement of employees in job groups and questionable promotions.
In some cases, affected employees rose four job groups in two years without any justification, and most affected are irregularly hired employees who are cronies or relatives of top county officials.
The resultant bloated workforce caused congestion at the Nandi county offices in Kapsabet, where in a one-room ICT office, there were up to 18 employees using one desktop computer.
The Star established that most of those hired did not have clear job descriptions but had been secretly designated as “social media warriors”, whose work was to respond to social media posts mainly in defence of certain county bosses.
Sang vowed to implement fully the PSC recommendations as part of his commitment to ensuring the prudent use of public resources and to control the runaway wage bill that leaves no resources for development programmes.
This is as per the recommendations of the Salaries and Remuneration Commission during the Third National Wage Bill Conference in April this year.
Some of the suspended payroll workers are being questioned by the DCI about the scam as details also emerged that some of those hired irregularly “bought’ the jobs paying bribes of up to Sh40,000.
Sang said the affected officers possessing irregular appointments should visit the complaints desk set up in every department and explain how they got the fake letters.
He said some employees moved two, three or four job groups in one year, while some have stayed in the same grade for more than eight years and have never been promoted.
Sang said the level of disparity and impunity that was perpetuated during the period in question will be addressed.
The governor said all the affected departments with appointment letters received un-procedurally and fraudulently have been expunged from the payroll.
Sang said the county government has referred the matter to the Director of Criminal Investigation for further action.
“Individuals who obtained appointment letters illegally, un-procedurally and fraudulently are under police investigation for fraud, bribery and related offences,” he said.
He said disciplinary action has been initiated against those found responsible, including recovery of funds the county government may have.
The county has been riddled with claims of massive corruption, including incomplete or abandoned projects that gobbled millions of public funds, and these has now been compounded by the payroll scam.