Governor Wamatangi blames predecessors as county stares at Sh600m wage bill
Kiambu Governor Kimani Wamatangi.
Kiambu Governor Kimani Wamatangi has lamented the county’s bloated Sh600 million wage bill, terming it unsustainable.
“The net effect is that we are using Sh7.2 billion annually to pay salaries. Add the day-to-day expenditure of running the county and we surpass both our equitable share and local revenues, remaining with nothing for development,” Mr Wamatangi said.
He said the county’s resource projections are Sh10 billion in equitable share of revenue disbursements from the National Treasury and Sh3 billion from own-source revenues.
“Of the Sh13 billion cash-in-hand, expenditure per year is bound to hit Sh15 billion and we need at least a further Sh15 billion for our development needs under perfect economic conditions,” he said.
The county was operating on a deficit of Sh17 billion “and this has amplified the urgency in the call for the implementation of one-man-one-shilling resource allocation formula if development justice were to prevail in this county”.
Pending bills
Mr Wamatangi revealed that the county owed Sh7 billion in pending bills, of which Sh600 million has been paid.
“Sh4 billion of these bills were incurred over the past two years,” he said.
“Our staff audit, which is ongoing, has unearthed fraudulent activities. People who left employment in the county for other jobs elsewhere are still earning salaries from the county government,” he said.
He said more than Sh2 billion has been lost through payment of salaries to ghost workers and payroll fraud.
Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu, Mr Wamatangi said,has released a report that shows Kiambu County hired 3, 000 casual workers without following the laid-down procedure.
About 90 per cent of allocations to counties have been captured by audit reports to be going to salaries and allowances.
Most of the Sh300 billion set to be allocated to counties in the current financial year will fund recurrent expenditure in the devolved units, calling for improved own-source revenue collection to fund development projects, Mr Wamatangi said.
