• Six former staff who were dismissed by the County for various reasons were still on the payroll
• Ouko said the County Executive could not explain how its recurrent expenditure rose by Sh 505,377,516.
An audit has revealed shocking rot at Migori County payroll where employees who have retired are still on payroll ‘taking home’ hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ money.
The revelations points to yet another worrying trend exploited by devolved units to loot from taxpayers at the expense of service delivery.
In the report, Auditor General Edward Ouko revealed that some 67 employees who had attained mandatory retirement age of 60 years were still on the County’s payroll and were collectively being ‘paid’ Sh 5.5 million from the County coffers every month.
This translates to Sh 66,143,700 the county is paying irregularly to the employees who no longer offer any services to the County every year.
The damning report also revealed that another six former staff who were dismissed by the County for various reasons were still on the payroll and receiving their dues for doing nothing.
“Data analysis carried out to authenticate the accuracy and validity of payroll data revealed that sixty-seven employees who had attained the retirement age of sixty years were still appearing in the payroll as 30 June 2018 and the County was incurring an expenditure of Sh 5,511, 975 as compensation costs in respect of these employees,” Ouko said.
The report was tabled in the Senate by majority leader and Elgeyo Marakwet senator Kipchumba Murkomen.
During the audit period, Ouko said the County Executive could not explain how its recurrent expenditure rose by Sh 505,377,516.
During 2016/2017 financial year, the County spent Sh 1, 935, 158, 353 to pay its workforce, this hit Sh 2, 440, 535, 869 in the current 2017/2018 fiscal year.
Ouko also indicated the audit team could not get to the bottom of the financial mess as they could not access crucial documents and records in respect to transactions running into billions and which the County explained were burnt in a mysterious fire on September 24, 2017.
“Data analytics of the IFMIS records revealed that expenditure totalling Sh 1, 562, 479, 487 was incurred and paid from 1 July to 24 September 2017. However, the expenditure could not be vouched due to lack of relevant documents and financial records which allegedly got burnt during the fire outbreak, ” the report revealed.
The fire is said to have affected the procurement store where the crucial documents were being kept.
Among the documents reportedly destroyed by the fire include financial documents, tender documents, assortment of procured materials, equipment, furniture and stationery.