Eight county governments hired thousands of staff without following due process during the 2023/24 financial year, a report by the auditor-general has revealed.
The workers were recruited and added to payrolls without their positions being advertised, shortlisting candidates, and even conducting interviews.
The shocking details in the latest report released last week indicate that the recruited staff in Samburu, Trans Nzoia, Nairobi, Narok, Nandi, Embu, Machakos and Uasin Gishu continue drawing salaries and allowances running into millions of shillings every month.
The report shows that in some cases, there was no evidence of vacancy declaration for positions before hiring, and in others, personal files of staff containing employment records, were missing.
The employees include administrative officers, Early Childhood Development Education teachers, clerical officers, directors, trade development officers and enforcement officers.
In Samburu, for instance, the county employed 29 individuals to work for the Governor's Delivery Unit without approval from the County Public Service Board (CPSB).
During the period under review, no records for advertisements, applications, shortlisting, interviews and selection process of candidates were provided for audit.
"At the time, the 29 employees had been paid Sh60 million. Further, the Governor's Delivery Unit under which they have been working was not provided for in the approved organisation structure and the duties and responsibilities of the members of the team were not defined," the report by Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu reads
Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu speaking during a meeting with the Budget Committee at English Point in Nyali, Mombasa County on February 4, 2025.
Photo credit: Wachira Mwangi | Nation Media Group
"This is contrary to Section 68 of the County Governments Act 2012 that requires the County Public Service Board to maintain a record of all applications received in response to advertisements inviting applications and such records be inspected by any person.”
Further, it emerged that Governor Lati Lelelit created the unit at a time when there was no board as the term of the previous officeholders had expired.
Samburu County Governor Jonathan Lati Lelelit.
Photo credit: File| Nation Media Group
Already, a Senate committee has directed the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) to move in and declare the Governor’s Delivery Unit redundant and surcharge all officers deployed there as they were a product of an illegality.
“In the absence of the evidence on whether the CPSB was consulted, we direct the EACC to demand a refund from the officers who were recruited to work in the Unit. It is illegal,” said Senator Moses Kajwang, the chairman of the County Public Accounts Committee, in a communique seen by the Nation.
In Narok County, 73 clerical officers ll, eight law enforcement officers, 27 trade development officers and two administrative officers were irregularly recruited to their respective job appointments.
"The county executive did not provide evidence of any human resource plans and confirmation of whether the vacancies existed within the staff establishment and that the county followed the due recruitment process," reads the audit report.
"The Public Service Board appointed the employees without conducting any interviews to assess their suitability contrary to Article 232(1) of the Constitution of Kenya.”
According to Ms Gathungu, this was contrary to the employment laws that require that recruitment be undertaken on the basis of fair competition and merit.
In Nairobi, the executive employed 3,834 staff without following due process.
The audit highlights that no advertisement was made for the said positions and shortlists were not done during the hiring process.
"The recruitment was not supported with a recruitment plan, advertisement, long list and shortlists, interview reports and score sheets. Therefore, the recruitment did not follow due process," states the report.
The report says this made it a daunting task to tell if there were vacancies to be filled by the said staff, adding that some crucial positions in some departments were filled by unqualified staff.
“An officer was appointed as Director Infrastructure and Information Security despite lacking academic qualifications of Master’s Degree in Computer Science or any other ICT related discipline from a recognised institution and strategic leadership development course lasting not less than four weeks from a recognized institution,” the report reads.
Similarly, the auditor-general stated that the recruitment was done for units that could not be traced in the staff establishment, scheme of services and the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Database (IPPD).
The staff who could not be traced in the payroll, the report says, were chief executive officers for city-county referral hospitals, and the county failed to state the minimum requirements needed to fill such positions.
The qualifications of the assistant director of infrastructure and information security were put under scrutiny, with the report noting that the officer had not served in the grade of principal information communication technology as required.
According to the audit, another officer was appointed to the position of assistant director of infrastructure and information security for job group P, while the evaluation of the personnel file shows that the staff member is a system analyst.
In Embu, the County Public Service Board irregularly recruited 911 employees in various positions.
No supporting evidence of interviews, shortlisting or list of applicants was provided for audit.
In Governor George Natembeya's Trans Nzoia County, a review of staff records revealed that the County Public Service Board irregularly recruited 258 officers into various positions in the devolved unit.
Governor George Natembeya at his office at the Trans Nzoia County Government headquarters in Kitale Town.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
There was no evidence of vacancy declaration for the positions, and the county executive did not provide staff establishment to guide on the number of staff and the cadres the entity is authorised to have.
"This was contrary to Section 5(2) of the County Public Service Board Human Resource Manual 2013, which requires that all vacancies must be declared including the number of vacancies and whether they are within the authorised establishment," stated Ms Gathungu in the report.
In Nandi, a gross salary of Sh6.5 million was remitted to 139 employees whose personal files did not contain their appointment letters, academic qualifications and other employment records.
Further, 135 members of staff with no personal files were paid through a manual Excel sheet payroll and did not equally have personal file numbers, designation, KRA pins and job groups, yet they drew benefits equivalent to officers in Job Group K and above in the public service.
In Governor Jonathan Bii led -Uasin Gishu County,181 staff, including ECDE teachers, were recruited without following due process.
