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Image: BRIAN OJAMAA
Senate Speaker Ken Lusaka has been accused of increasing Bungoma workers' salaries during the 2017 campaigns in order to get re-elected as governor.
Governor Wycliffe Wangamati on Thursday told senators the adjustment of the salaries pushed up the county's wage bill.
Bungoma's wage bill stood at Sh3.1 billion annually in 2017 but the expenditure rose to Sh4.2 billion the next year. The variations mean the county is spending 43 per cent of its revenue to pay salaries.
Wangamati said his predecessor was to blame. Lusaka was Bungoma governor until August 2017 when he lost to Wangamati.
Wangamati cited ECDE teachers whom he said Lusaka increased their salaries more than twice months before the general election.
“The previous administration had given letters to ECDE teachers showing salary increase and which we had to implement because they could sue us in the event we failed to comply,” Wangamati said.
He was appearing before the Senate County Public Accounts and Investment Committee chaired by Homa Bay Senator Moses Kajwang.
Wangamati said his hands were tied after being confronted by hundreds of employees who wanted increased salaries.
The governor said Lusaka adjusted the salaries to set up whoever would succeed him. “I think the adjustments were done for campaigns because the letters were dated May and June 2017,” Wangamati said.
ECDE teachers with certificates had their salaries increased from Sh8,000 to Sh21,000 while those with diploma got Sh28,000 from the previous Sh10,000 monthly pay.
The county has 2,074 Early Childhood Development Education teachers.
"ECDE teachers’ salary alone increased the wage bill by Sh384 million," Wangamati said.
Kajwang’ said the committee will not close its eyes to the claims made by the governor especially those touching on the Senate Speaker.
“It cannot be seen that the Senate is soft on years the Speaker was the governor. We still retain an interest in those years,” Kajwang’ said.
Wangamati also cited implementation of the Collective Bargaining Agreement with doctors and other health workers as another factor that increased the wage bill by another Sh463 million.
The governor was however at pains to explain Sh78 million retention money deducted from suppliers and contractors which the county could not account for in the 2017-18 audit queries.
edited by p. obuya