Some 21 employees of the Department of Public Works pocketed Sh617,285 a month each—or Sh20,294 a day—for one year in travel allowances, an audit has revealed.
This exposes the extent of the broken per diem and allowances scheme, through which government employees draw perks beyond set limits and guidelines, sometimes in fictitious claims.
In all, the 21 employees, who took home a total of Sh155.5 million for domestic travel and subsistence during the 2021/22 financial year, gobbled up nearly 20 per cent of the entire department’s budget for salaries and other allowances.
The Sh155.5 million translates to each of the employees earning an average of Sh7.4 million during the year, assuming they worked each of the 365 days of the year, including weekends and public holidays. This is improbable, according to Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu, who flagged the suspect payments.
Auditor General Nancy Gathungu.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
Ms Gathungu faults the department charged with improving living and working conditions in government buildings, developing and maintaining coastline infrastructure and pedestrian access, procuring common user items for government institutions, and regulation and development of Kenya’s construction industry, for improper usage of public funds.
Review of both development and recurrent cash books revealed that Sh155,555,931 was paid during the year to 21 members of staff relating to imprests for domestic travel and subsistence.
“This clearly shows that officers were in the field for more days than the work schedule can accommodate and possibly more than the working days in a year. In the circumstances, the propriety and value for money of Sh155,555,931 could not be confirmed,” Ms Gathungu noted in the report tabled in Parliament.
During the year, the department’s spending on compensation to employees, which constituted basic salaries for permanent employees, basic wages for temporary staff and personal allowances paid as part of salary, totalled Sh807.1 million.
The Sh155.5 million was therefore equivalent to 19.3 per cent of the department’s entire compensation for employees budget.
The department fell under the Ministry of Transport, Infrastructure, Housing, Urban Development and Public Works during the former administration. At the time, the Cabinet secretary was James Macharia and the Principal Secretary was Solomon Kitungu.
The huge allowances are despite an ongoing initiative by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) to streamline allowances paid in the public service, with the main aim of capping them at 40 per cent of an employee’s gross salary.
The SRC in October 2021 indicated an intention to scrap most of the allowances paid in government and set the ratio of allowances to basic salaries in the public service at 40:60, after finding out that public entities were paying up to 247 allowances, with some workers earning allowances up to 259 per cent of their basic salaries.
In March, SRC Chairperson Lyn Mengich, however, indicated that there had been resistance to the plan within government, which saw the commission make little progress, even as the public service wage bill crossed Sh1 trillion in 2021/22.
“SRC has faced several challenges, such as litigation, where some institutions and organisations have taken SRC to court over the proposed reviews even before the issuance of the final advice, thus delaying the process,” Ms Mengich said.
President William Ruto’s administration is speaking more aggressively against wastage in the public service, issuing guidelines to limit spending on travel and other expenditures with no direct benefit to citizens.
On June 29, the Executive Office of the President wrote to Cabinet secretaries (CSs), principal secretaries (PSs) and heads of State corporations, limiting delegations that travel out of the country and requiring that foreign travel applications by officials from the rank of CEO and above go through the Presidency.
“In view of the responsibilities of the senior ranks addressed in these guidelines, CSs, CASs, PSs, chairpersons and CEOs of State corporations shall attend only policy related meetings/events/activities etc, or events that have bearing on policy, and be out of the country for no more than seven working days,” President Ruto’s office stated, limiting cumulative days the officers would be allowed to be on foreign trips to 45 days a year.
During an event for signing of performance contracts by CSs last week, Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua disclosed that the President issued the guidelines after excessive foreign travels by senior ministry officials hampered Cabinet operations.
“We took a decision to limit foreign trips to a certain number in a year, which is really unfortunate, that should not have been the case. People should have regulated themselves to travel when it’s necessary but because of the opulence that all ministers and PSs were out of the country most of the time, the President had to put a stop. Why do you have to honour every invitation that you have been given to every country?” Mr Gachagua asked.
The DP said that some of the CSs took repeated foreign trips, changing clothes at the airport on their way to another country.
Kenya’s public service continues to operate on a highly unsustainable wage bill, which has increased by 70 per cent since 2016, with allowances paid to workers taking up a large share. The wage bill grew at an average Sh72 billion annually from 2016 to hit Sh1.055 trillion last year.
In the financial year 2021/22, domestic travel in the national government cost Sh14.13 billion, while foreign travel cost Sh6 billion.
Latest details from the Controller of Budget show that in the nine months to March 2023, domestic travel cost taxpayers Sh9.39 billion, while foreign travel cost Sh4.68 billion.
