County jobs mainly given to people from dominant communities, audit says
Counties in Western and Nyanza regions continue to ignore the law in recruitment of staff, despite repeated warnings from the Auditor-General.
In his latest report, Auditor-General Edward Ouko has criticised the devolved units for ethnic imbalance of county staff in blatant disregard of the law.
The law demands that one third of employees be recruited from communities other than the dominant one.
In some counties, retired employees were still on the payroll while others who had been dismissed shockingly continued to earn salaries.
Also, some counties continued to employ more staff despite cautions on the ballooning wage bill caused by a bloated workforce, hence eating into development budget.
PAYROLL
In Migori, analysis carried out to authenticate the accuracy and validity of payroll data revealed that 67 employees who had attained the retirement age of 60 years were still on the payroll as of June 30, 2018.
“The county was incurring an expenditure of Sh5.5 million as compensation costs in respect of these employees,” said Mr Ouko.
Further, it was noted that six former staff who had been dismissed for various reasons were yet to be removed from the payroll.
In Kisii, the County Public Service Board recruited 378 out of 385 staff, translating to 98 per cent, from the dominant Kisii community.
This is contrary to provisions of the County Governments Act, 2012, that requires while selecting candidates for appointment, the board should consider the need to ensure that at least 30 per cent of the vacant posts at entry level are filled by candidates who are not from the dominant ethnic community.
RECRUITS
“The board was therefore in breach of the law,” revealed the Auditor-General’s report.
In Nyamira, the executive recruited 532 staff, a majority of whom were early childhood development education teachers and nurses.
Examination of the personnel records indicated that all recruits were from the county, contrary to the law.
In Kakamega, the audit established that the management had breached the law since the compensation of employees’ balance of Sh4,571, 436,148 exceeded the recommended ratio of 35 per cent as stipulated in section 25 (1) of the Public Finance Management (County Governments) Regulations 2015.
Consequently, Mr Ouko said adequate measures should be taken to contain the ballooning wage bill and increase collection of revenue.
In Bungoma, irregularities were cited in the recruitment of 27 employees.
PENSIONABLE TERMS
The employees were hired without the positions being advertised to allow for a competitive recruitment process.
The county government is on the spot for hiring 402 casual employees on permanent and pensionable terms without following the necessary recruitment procedures.
Mr Ouko said the recruitment was not competitive and did not reflect gender and regional balance.
In Vihiga, payments of Sh202 million were made to 400 casual staff recruited on a one-year contract.
The positions were not advertised and the executive did not specify the terms and conditions for hiring the employees.
The county paid Sh74 million to casuals working in Vihiga, Mbale and Luanda in the departments of health, gender, sports and trade in unclear circumstances.
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