The audit points out cases in 15 state departments, including the National Treasury, where more than 5,400 employees took home less than a third of their net pay.
It is a requirement of the Employment Act 2012 and Public Service Commission Human Resource Policies, 2016, that employees take home at least a third of their net salary.
The Act provides that the total amount of deductions that may be made by an employer from the wages of an employee at any one time shall not exceed two-thirds.
The Public Service Commission Human Resource Policies, 2016, says public officers shall not over-commit their salaries beyond two-thirds of their basic pay.
But, as pointed out by Auditor General Nancy Gathungu in a review of national government accounts as of June 30, 2023, staff are taking home sums lower than provided by law.
The worst case scenario was at the Correctional Services Department where 4,082 officers took home less than one-third of their basic salary.
The auditor warns that deductions beyond two-thirds of an employee’s salary exposes them to embarrassment and may force them into unethical practices.
“Where salary deductions are recovered more than two-thirds of the basic salary, employees may be tempted to engage in other unethical behaviour which may lead to loss of funds and lower productivity,” Gathungu said.
“It may also subject the officers to pecuniary embarrassment,” the Auditor General added, citing the management of the affected entities for breach of the law.
The auditor has called out heads of human resource units at the respective agencies, saying they must ensure staff comply with the law.
At the National Treasury, 155 employees – an increase of 30 from last year - were paid a net salary of less than 33 per cent of basic salary.
“The management has not explained the failure to comply with the policy. In the circumstances, management was in breach of the law,” Gathungu said.
At the Department of TVET, a review of payroll records for June 2023 revealed that 215 employees – from seven in 2022 - received less than one-third of their basic salary.
At least 83 employees also went home almost empty-handed at the Department of Basic Education.
“Management had not explained the failure to comply with the Public Service Commission Human Resource Policies, 2016,” Gathungu said.
The law also prohibits deductions of any debt due to surpass the two-thirds mark, but the Ministry of Health had 168 employees getting less than the set threshold.
A review of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Database records for the Roads Department revealed that 131 employees had their net pay below a third of their basic pay during April 2023.
The Public Service Commission, which is the state’s human resource office, had 12 employees who took a net salary of less than one-third of their basic salary.
“Management did not provide satisfactory explanations for the failure to comply with the policy, which may expose the staff to pecuniary embarrassment,” the audit report shows.
Gathungu said the PSC management broke their own policy and procedures manual following the revelations.
“The management is in breach of the Public Service Commission (PSC) Human Resource Policies and Procedures Manual, 2016.”
At the Housing and Urban Development Department April, May and June 2023 salary payrolls revealed that several employees took salaries below the recommended one-third of their basic salary.
Last year, the auditor flagged cases involving 30 officers at the Department of Housing who earned less than the statutory limit.
With the recently enacted laws, which introduced an increase in NSSF deductions and housing levy in the face of no corresponding pay increment, the situation has turned for the worse for most civil servants.
“Njaa inatumaliza [We are succumbing to starvation]. Tunanyoroshwa na NSSF [we are suffering from high NSSF deductions], housing, new NHIF rates, and there is no increment. We also hear SRC are somewhere cutting down allowances,” a civil servant told the Star when asked about the situation of public workers.
An analysis of the Water Department payroll for June 2023 revealed that 19 employees received a net salary of less than a third of the basic salary.
At least 165 employees at the Lands department also took home income below the recommended threshold.
“In the circumstances, management was in breach of the law,” the Auditor General said.
The Broadcasting Department also had cases of several employees earning a net salary of less than a third of their pay. At least 20 were in that category last year.
A similar case was noted at Social Protection, where 126 employees took more than their payslips could accommodate.
Cases were also cited at the State Law Office, where 162 employees were unmasked for breach of salary rule during the year under review.
“The management did not explain the failure to comply with the policy. In the circumstances, management was in breach of the law,” the audit reveals.
Officers at the Directorate of Public Prosecutions are also struggling amid revelations that 75 of them took home less than a third of their basic salary during the year under review.
At least 19 National Land Commission employees borrowed beyond their payslips, sparking an audit query.
The auditor said the NLC management did not give an explanation for the failure to comply with the policy, hence was in breach of the law.
Kenya is grappling with a biting economic crisis with banks on the Nairobi Securities Exchange posting paper losses on bad and doubtful loans.
Central Bank in its stability report of 2023 indicated that “microfinance banks remained weak, thinly capitalised and loss-making.”
While civil servants are met with brutal deductions, the grand question has been where the money goes to, in the face of the huge pending bills accrued by state agencies on the respective vote heads.
Latest data from the Controller of Budget shows that as of December 31, 2023, MDAs had not remitted Sh23 billion in PAYE, Sh428 million NSSF contributions, Sh86 million to NHIF, Sh2.7 billion in sacco deductions, Sh2.5 billion in staff loan deductions, and Sh31 billion in pension arrears.
In the year ending June 30, 2022, similar cases were cited at the Infrastructure Department (111), nine at the Transport department, four at Shipping, 15 at Fisheries, 16 at Social Protection, 244 at the State Law office, 163 at the ODPP, and 26 at NLC.
