- The audit said the county did not provide records for audit to prove that the officers were entitled to prolonged stay in service as provided for in public service staffing regulations.
- Gathungu made the revelations in her latest audit report for the county covering the 2019/20 financial year.
Image: BY MATHEWS NDANYI
Auditor General Nancy Gathungu has faulted Elgeyo Marakwet county for illegally retaining on its payroll officers who had attained retirement age and irregularly paying them salaries and allowances.
The county, headed by Governor Alex Tolgos who is on a second term, illegally retained more than 61 “retired” officers and went ahead to pay them more than Sh40 million in salaries and allowances.
Gathungu made the revelations in her latest audit report for the county covering the 2019-20 financial year.
She said examination of the payroll indicated that 61 officers were still in office as at 30 June, 2020 and were paid emoluments totalling about Sh40 million.
The audit said the county did not provide records for audit to prove that the officers were entitled to prolonged stay in service as provided for in public service staffing regulations.
“Therefore, retention of the officers in employment contravened Section D21 of Human Resource Policies and Procedures Manual for the Public Service, 2016," Gathungu’s audit report said.
"[The manual] requires all officers to retire from the service on attaining the mandatory retirement age of 60 years, or 65 years for persons with disabilities.”
She also faulted the county for illegally overspending on salaries of its staff.
The report further said the expenditure and budget records indicated that in the year under review, the county executive allocated Sh2.1 billion for payment of salaries and wages out of its budget of Sh5.8 billion.
The sum set aside for the salaries was equivalent to 41 per cent of its revenue for the year.
Gathungu said the allocation surpassed the 35 per cent threshold set for personnel emoluments in Regulation 25(1b) of the Public Finance Management (County Governments) Regulations, 2015.
“In addition to being irregular, the overuse of funds on salaries and wages denied funding to service delivery and developmental activities that would benefit the majority of Elgeyo/Marakwet county residents.”
The county also used Sh6.4 million on basic wages for temporary employees. However, records provided for audit indicated the sum was actually spent on reimbursements of medical expenses incurred through the National Hospital Insurance Fund.
As a result, she said the use of Sh2.1 billion on salaries and wages was not fairly stated by the county.
Further, the audit report said a review of payroll records revealed that each of the county executive’s departments maintained two sets of payrolls, one in the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Database system and the other in manual form.
The records said 74 staff members were not in the IPPD payroll.
Instead, their emoluments totalling Sh142,485,314 were processed manually in spreadsheets prone to error and other forms of misstatement.
She said the management did not provide a plausible explanation for use of manual payrolls in place of the prescribed IPPD system.
This put to doubt the financial statement by the county on the amount it used on salaries.
The county budget further comprised development expenditure totalling Sh2.4 billion and recurrent expenditure totalling to Sh3.3 billion.
However, actual expenditure by the county executive amounted to Sh4.3 billion resulting in under expenditure of Sh1.4 billion or 25 per cent of the budget.
Gathungu said the unutilised 25 per cent share of the budget implied that some activities and projects in the annual work plan were not implemented.
(edited by Amol Awuor)