A task force investigating Nyandarua government operations reveals rot in the county treasury and human resource department where millions of shillings were swindled through fake wage bills and ghost workers.
The report highlights glaring discrepancies in the wage bills by the treasury and county employees' data by the human resource department against payrolls submitted to the task force.
This escalated to the report on pending bills submitted to the assumption of the office committee and that submitted by the departments indicating Sh64 million.
From the departments, the committee received a report indicating a pending bill figure of Sh1, 254, 016, 924 while the county treasury report shows 1, 317, 543, 923.
On the wage bill, there is Sh81million discrepancies between what the Finance and Economic Planning department submitted to the investigating committee chaired by Deputy Governor John Mathara and what the Payroll provided, with the treasury giving a figure of Sh2billion while the Payroll gave a conflicting figure of Sh2.1billion.
Releasing the findings, Governor Kiarie Badilisha directed for a headcount of all county staff on Wednesday next week after the report indicated conflicting figures of the employees, with the human resource department documenting 2, 732 employees against two contradicting figures reflected in the Payroll showing 2, 554 and 2, 273.
“Going by the report, it shows that the county lacks dependable harmonised and definite record number of employees. There is a difference of 360 employees which must be explained and that can only be done through the staff audit,” said the governor.
A similar audit was done by immediate former Governor Francis Kimemia over similar claims, but the findings were never made public and no staff was victimised for that.
But Governor Badilisha says that a committee has conducted the audit and headcount and it's locked somewhere analysing the findings.
The report also notes there is irregular recruitment and issuance of employment letters between and within the County Public Service Board and the office of the County Secretary
“I direct the audit of the pending bills involving physical verification of documents and projects undertaken. We have established that some debts listed had already been cleared,” said Governor Badilisha.
