Garissa, Samburu counties on the spot over irregular payments, hiring
Audit reveals 52 employees from Garissa County unlawfully received Sh4.8 million in special house allowances.
Garissa and Samburu counties have been flagged by the Auditor General over millions spent in irregular payments, and hiring.
Garissa County has been flagged for irregular payments and staffing issues, with an audit revealing that 52 employees unlawfully received Sh4.8 million in special house allowances.
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The Auditor-General's report also highlights illegal hiring, payroll discrepancies, and failure to meet employment quotas for persons with disabilities.
The Financial Year 2023-2024 report by Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu shows that 52 employees were paid special allowances on top of their regular housing benefits.
The county executive failed to provide a satisfactory explanation for these payments, and there was no approved staff establishment to clarify how workforce capacity was determined.
"The county executive maintained a manual payroll in spreadsheets, with 735 employees paid outside the IPPD," Gathungu noted.
She warned that manual payroll systems are prone to errors and irregularities, including ghost workers and unauthorized salary adjustments.
Attempts to get a response from County Executive Committee Member for Finance, Abass Ismael, were unsuccessful as he did not answer phone calls or reply to text messages.
The report also reveals that the county failed to meet the legally required employment quota for persons with disabilities.
By June 2024, only 83 employees with disabilities were on the payroll, making up three per cent of the workforce instead of the required five per cent set by the County Human Resource Manual of 2018.
Additionally, the county was flagged for irregular hiring of casual employees, with Sh36 million spent on wages.
"A review of payroll records revealed that casual employees were engaged continuously for more than three months, contrary to Section 37 (1)(a) and (b) of the Employment Act, 2007," Gathungu stated.
The audit further found that 166 employees received salaries below the one-third basic salary threshold. It also discovered that six employees had continued working past the mandatory retirement age under unclear circumstances.
Gathungu's report warns that the lack of an approved staff establishment could lead to either understaffing or overstaffing, affecting service delivery in Garissa County. The findings raise concerns over accountability and the management of public funds.
Samburu's Sh60.06 million expenditure
The Samburu County government is at the same time also under scrutiny after Auditor General Nancy Gathungu flagged an irregular Sh60.06 million expenditure on 29 employees under the controversial Governor’s Delivery Unit (GDU) operating outside legal county structures.
In her latest audit report for the 2023/2024 financial year, Gathungu revealed that the GDU was not part of the county’s approved organisational structure, and its members’ roles were not clearly defined.
She additionally noted that the recruitment process did not receive approval from the County Public Service Board (CPSB), which is legally mandated to establish and abolish offices within the county's public service, appoint suitable individuals, and confirm appointments.
“There was no evidence of advertisements, applications, shortlisting, interviews, or selection of successful candidates during the recruitment of the entire GDU,” Gathungu said.
“The expenditure for compensation is an amount of Sh60.06 million that was made to twenty-nine (29) staff members under the GDU. As previously reported, the unit was not provided for in the approved organisation structure, and the duties and responsibilities of the members were not defined.”
The revelations come just three months after the Senate’s County Public Accounts Committee (CPAC) flagged a total of Sh390 million in irregular expenditures by Governor Lati Lelelit’s administration and called for investigations by state agencies.
MPs further criticised Samburu County for the irregular recruitment of casual workers in county health facilities and the creation of offices within the County Public Service without following legal procedures.
In the 2022/2023 audit report, the Auditor General flagged a Sh36 million expenditure used to compensate casual workers and another Sh350 million for county staff salaries, questioning whether the funds had been properly utilised. Documents presented before the committee indicated that only 36 casual workers were compensated.
Legislators accused Governor Lelelit of unlawfully creating an office and recruiting staff within the county public service without CPSB approval. While the governor insisted that the board had been involved in establishing the Governor’s Delivery Unit, he failed to provide any documentary evidence to support his claim.
In November last year, CPAC chair Senator Moses Kajwang directed the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) to declare the Governor’s Delivery Unit redundant and recover funds from the officers employed in the unit.
“In the absence of evidence on whether the board was consulted, we direct the EACC to demand a refund from the officers who were recruited to work in the unit. It is illegal,” Senator Kajwang said on November 28, 2024.
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