- MCAs will this week debate the repot and recommend measures that will be taken to streamline the hiring and payroll in the county executive.
- The audit report showed that over 1,000 employees of the Nandi county government were illegally hired and could lose their jobs.
Image: FILE
A human resource audit on payroll scams in Nandi has been tabled at the county assembly amid fears among employees of a possible freeze on salaries.
The audit is part of measures to weed out more than 1,000 workers found to have been hired illegally.
Majority leader Walter Teno (Kabiyet MCA) tabled the report noting that the county was facing a major wage bill crisis which the assembly must take measures to resolve.
The report was forwarded to the assembly by Governor Stephen Sang who has expressed desire to have the payroll crisis resolved in order to get resources required to complete development projects.
“We have taken the issue seriously as an assembly. We will work with the governor and other leaders to come up with solutions to the challenges we now face,” Teno said.
MCAs will this week debate the repot and recommend measures that will be taken to streamline the hiring and payroll in the county executive.
The audit report showed that over 1,000 employees were illegally hired and could lose their jobs.
The audit also unearthed massive payroll scam that caused the county wage bill to increase to more than 65 per cent of the budget.
Two weeks ago, Sang suspended several payroll officers to allow for investigations into alleged irregularities in the payroll management system which had seen the number of employees increase to 4,430.
Those suspended have already recorded statements with the DCI.
Some employees told the Star they were worried of a possible freeze of salaries as the county works to streamline the payroll.
Sang has issued instructions that only regularly hired staff will be paid and those who may have taken money illegally will be made to pay back.
The county should not have more than 3,000 workers. Auditor General Nancy Gathungu has been raising queries over irregular employment of extra workers by the county.
Sang’s action came after the damning comprehensive audit report on human resource personnel practices and staff payroll in the county.
The audit was done by a technical team from the Public Service Commission.
Among its finding is that individuals in the Nandi County Public Service Board and the payroll unit colluded 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. 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.
A case in point is the ICT office where in one room 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 to respond to social media posts mainly in defence of certain county bosses.
In one glaring case, a senior individual had eight of his relatives employed including three brothers and a sister along with several cousins.
While releasing details of the audit report, governor Sang vowed to implement fully the PSC recommendations as part of his commitment to ensure prudent use of public resources.
He is also seeking to control the runaway wage bill that leaves no resources for development.
This is as per the recommendations of the Salaries and Remuneration Commission during the Third National Wage Bill Conference in April this year.
As the suspended payroll workers continue to be questioned by the DCI about the scam, details have emerged that some of those hired irregularly “bought" the jobs paying bribes of up to Sh400,000
Sang has challenged affected officers possessing irregular appointments to visit the complaints desk set up in every department and explain how they got the letters.
“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,” Sang said.
He said there were employees who moved two, three, four job groups in one year, while some have stayed in the same grade for more than eight years with no promotion.
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.