Shared names on the payroll, irregular promotions and fictitious payments to non-existent staff are some of the underhand schemes employed by rogue county officers behind a complex web of payroll fraud in devolved units.
The damning revelations are contained in Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu’s latest report on for counties for the financial year ending June 2024.
At the tip of the payroll fraud and hiring farce that has resulted in loss of taxpayers’ money are some senior county officers, mostly drawn from the Finance department.
Unnecessary recruitments, payment of salaries higher than the maximum recommended, retirees active in the payroll and idle staff are also part of the mega scheme aimed at lining the pockets of the unscrupulous officers at the expense of service delivery to Kenyans.
Audit reveals Nandi County loses Sh 3 million monthly in payments to ghost workers
Governor Stephen Sang’s Nandi County paid Sh15.7 million to casuals who had no details of their specific worksite, designation and the casual attendance for a specific period of time.
Further, there was no evidence provided to show how the casuals were paid through their bank accounts.
“Therefore, the casuals might have been paid monthly wages which were not commensurate to the services offered to the County Executive and/or no services may have been rendered at all as there were no underlying records of worksites and assigned duties,” the report stated.
The county was also flagged for irregularly promoting some directors through several cadres despite them lacking requisite qualifications for the appointments.
Even further, some officers were promoted yet they had pending disciplinary or integrity issues which had not been concluded.
Proving to be a den of payroll fraud and hiring farce, second only to Nairobi County, the devolved unit made payments totaling to Sh6.5 million to 139 employees whose personal files did not contain their appointment letters, academic qualification, national ID and other employee’s employment records.
Additonally, 135 of the staff members were paid through manual excel sheet payroll and did not equally have personal file numbers, designation, KRA pin and job group yet they drew benefits equivalent to officers in Job Group K and above in the public service.
Still in the county, some 11 officers were drawing allowances in both electronic and manual payrolls receiving Sh34.8 million in the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Database (IPPD) and allowances of Sh1.7 million in the manual payroll.
“It was not clear why the officers were being paid in the manual payroll whereas they were already defined in the IPPD,” said Ms Gathungu.
In the scheme of things, the county paid some 15 permanent staff, 200 contractual staff and 554 casual staff a net salary amounting to Sh260.29 million outside the IPPD system.
At the same time, the county had some 27 employees above the mandatory retirement age active in their payroll, paying them Sh11.1 million during the period under review.
Siaya Governor James Orengo.
Photo credit: Sila Kiplagat | Nation Media Group
Governor James Orengo’s Siaya County also had some 20 employees sharing a bank account number during the period under review.
“It was, however, not clear how the County Executive would be paying net salaries to a joint account instead of remitting amounts owing to the FOSA account,” said Ms Gathungu.
But nothing beats the fraud in Nairobi County where a review of bank remittance for the executive’s payroll for August 2023 revealed that some 74 officers shared the same name.
The report further detailed how some 3,216 officers at the Governor Johnson Sakaja-led administration changed job groups more than once within the year, with some changing up to three times.
As part of the scam, some officers’ basic salary changed multiple times during the year, with some changing six times.
But that was not all. Some 197 officers had their birth dates changed multiple times, while some three officers had their payroll numbers attached to different National Identification numbers at various times of the year.
Further payroll analysis revealed that more than 6,000 employees were either sharing the same bank accounts, agent code and branch code.
City Hall continued to pay 13 sacked staff salaries backdated for two years without justification, contrary to the law, which states that salary payment to dismissed staff should be stopped within 10 days.
Continuing with the impunity, the report revealed that City Hall continues to retain some 17 employees who are beyond the retirement age of 60 years, paying them a cool Sh1.7 million during the year under review.
In Mombasa County, for instance, 16 employees were irregularly promoted to more than one job group during the year without performance appraisal, contrary to the law.
Further, some 96 employees were above the mandatory retirement age but were still cooling their heels in the payroll.
The county could not provide documents supporting the contract extensions despite arguing that the officers were persons with disabilities who are allowed to retire at 65 years.
Isiolo Governor Abdi Guyo appears before the Senate Committee on County Public Accounts at Bunge Towers Nairobi on Monday, April 29, 2024.
Photo credit: Pool
According to the report, Isiolo Governor Abdi Guyo hired 36 advisors against the allowed limit of four, appointed 31 chief officers against their own threshold of 18 and had two deputy county secretaries, a position not provided for in the County Executive’s staff establishment.
Further, the county had 29 employees over 60 years, yet they were not in the category of persons with disabilities.
Governor Cicily Mbarire’s Embu County hired some 911 employees, but 614 of the recruits could not be traced in the payroll or in the successful list of candidates.
A review of Machakos County staff payroll revealed that some 67 clinical officers and 61 medical doctors were on the payroll, yet they were performing no duty.
The idle staff, according to the report, undertook no activity between September, 2023 and March, 2024.
The Governor Wavinya Ndeti-led administration also had some two employees sharing the same bank account number and paid Sh487 million manually.
Samburu County paid Sh60 million to 29 staff under the “Governors Delivery Unit” despite the unit not being provided for in the county’s approved organisation structure and their duties and responsibilities not being defined.
The county also hired casuals in the Health department without the involvement of the County Public Service Board, forking out Sh36.4 million in the process while also paying some 13 employees Sh1.3 million in acting allowance for a duration exceeding six months.
They also deducted up to Sh160 million from its staff but failed to remit more than Sh70 million to pension schemes.
Trans Nzoia County Public Service Board recruited a total of 258 officers into various positions in the county without evidence of vacancy declaration for the positions.
Trans Nzoia County Governor George Natembeya.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
The Governor George Natembeya’s administration went ahead to hire 575 casuals in various departments for more than 12 months.
The county also has no evidence of remitting deductions from its staff of more than Sh1.84 billion to relevant authorities as required.
Busia County paid wages amounting to Sh119 million through manual payroll system and also irregularly engaged five staff despite them having attained the mandatory retirement age of 60 years.
But there was an interesting case in Bungoma County where some 627 employees were serving on probation periods of up to 16 years.
Section 42(2) of the Employment Act, 2007 provides that a probationary period shall not be more than six months, but it may be extended for a further period of not more than six months with the agreement of the employee.
Kilifi County had 26 employees above 60 years in their staff register contrary to the law while Lamu County had four such officers with the devolved unit coughing out Sh3.5 million to the retirees.
Lamu Governor Issa Timamy.
However, the Issa Timamy-led administration said they have retained the staff due to the rare knowledge, skills and competencies that are scarce, unique and not readily available in the job market. Nonetheless, the county could not provide details of the above-mentioned skills.
For Governor Ahmed Abdullahi’s Wajir County, they engaged some 18 employees on an interim basis, a position which is not provided in the County Human Resource Manual, 2013.
Interestingly, the nature of duties for which the staff were engaged could not be established since there were staff of similar category engaged on a permanent basis.
In an open show of impunity, the Council of Governors’ chairperson engaged 482 casual staff continuously for more than three months, contrary to the law.
Further, the casuals were engaged to perform tasks that are ordinarily performed by contractual and permanent employees including supply chain management assignments and revenue collection.
In the neighbouring Mandera County, some Sh188.9 million was used to pay 552 employees manually through an excel spreadsheet.
The same problem was witnessed in Marsabit County, where 367 staff members had their salaries computed manually using Excel spreadsheets.
In Nakuru County, 77 retirees drew salaries amounting to Sh36.1 million during the financial year under review.
Further, some Sh1 million was paid to 13 officers outside the IPPD system while also engaging 20 casuals for a period exceeding three months contrary to the law.
Laikipia County paid some two of its staff members acting allowance for 11 months contrary to the law which states that acting allowance will not be payable to an officer for more than six months.
Bomet County paid some 40 officers above 60 years but were still in service, a cool Sh32.1 million during the year under review.
