2,193 Homa Bay workers miss January salary as payroll audit continues

About 2, 193 Homa Bay staffers have not yet received their January salaries despite camping at the county governor's office for one week.

The employees were directed by the county secretary Bernard Muok to turn up at the county headquarters to get their pay through cheques.

The exercise was supposed to take three days according to a notice he issued by Muok.

The workers were supposed to carry their letters of appointment and that of the workstation. 

Since then a number of them have thronged the governor’s office in a bid to get their pay. It has however turned out that some workers are yet to get the cheques and have no surety that they will get the money.

The affected majority are those who are in the manual payroll system or in the integrated payroll personnel database.

The lucky ones got their payment on Monday while others got the same on Tuesday and Wednesday.

A female early childhood education teacher from a school in Kwabwai ward who sought anonymity said she has been commuting daily for four days with no luck.

“I spend Sh600 on transport every day from home to the governor's office. I haven’t received money since the exercise began,” she said.

She expects to get a cheque of not less than 10,000.

A health worker from Ndhiwa said he had to stay with his parents in Homa Bay town when he ran out of money for transport.

Some travel as far as Kabondo and Suba and spend up to 12 hours at the county headquarters with no signs of getting their salaries.

They expressed fears that their names might have been deleted from the payroll. 

“We’re really facing a lot of frustrations. An officer calmed us down and assured us of getting our money and fastened the process,” he said.

Governor Gladys Wanga spokesperson Rachel Oguttu said the delays have been caused due to scrutiny process.

She said the workers are required to avail their contract letters, appointment letters, academic documents, a copy of the national ID and other relevant documents.

“There must be some anomalies with employment records of those who have their cheques withheld,” Oguttu said.

Homa Bay government hired the Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC) firm to conduct an audit on employees after it realized that there were ghost workers.

Last week, 11 employees were arrested after having forged documents to enable them to get their salaries.

Oguttu said the firm has scheduled a final mop-up session for staffers who will not have presented themselves for verification for any reason to be done by the end of February 2023.

“We are committed to the success of this assignment and take full responsibility for the well-being of its staff,” she added.

The county government is using the audit exercise to align the governance structures and human resource systems.