Counties yet to lower wage bills, says report

Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu says six counties in the Rift Valley are grappling with a higher wage bill that has compromised development.

In her audit report for the year 2018/2019, she found out that seven years since the advent of devolution, Nakuru, Uasin Gishu, Nandi, Samburu, Baringo and Bomet are struggling to tame their rising wage bills and have failed to trim expenditure on non-essential items.

Uasin Gishu’s wage bill stood at Sh3.02 billion, or 38 per cent of its Sh7.9 billion revenue during the year under review.

The expenditure exceeded the recommended 35 per cent limit as stipulated in the Public Finance Management regulations 2015.

“No plausible explanation was given for the failure to adhere to the legal threshold for personnel expenditures. The expenditure violates the Public Finance Management regulations 2015,” states the report.

Further examination of the county payroll revealed instances of net salaries received by employees less than a third of their basic salaries after taxes.

Spent Sh2.7 billion  

This was after the management allowed excessive non-statutory deductions to be made on their gross salaries. Baringo County spent Sh2.7 billion on employees. The sum was 36 per cent of the total revenue of Sh7.6 billion and, therefore, was in excess of the recommended 35 per cent. It, therefore, was in excess of the threshold of 35 per cent thus breached the law on control of personal emoluments.

During the year under review, the county had a total budget of Sh8.1 billion but used Sh5.5 billion, resulting in under absorption of Sh2.5 billion.

In Samburu County, the wage bill rose to Sh1.6 billion from Sh1.3 billion. Salaries and wages consumed Sh1.34 billion while Sh727.45 million went to operations and maintenance in the previous year.

The wage bill takes up more than 65 per cent of total recurrent expenditure. In Nandi County, the report revealed that the wage bill stands at Sh2.8 billion.

The report showed that out of a staff of 4,234, more than 94 per cent, or 3,994, were from the dominant community.

“This is contrary to the constitution which provides that public service entities should represent the diversity of the people of Kenya," the Auditor-General said.

In Nakuru County, the wage bill stands at Sh6 billion. Nakuru has been grappling with a huge wage bill, eight years since the advent of devolution, which gobbles more than half of the county’s annual budget. Governor Lee Kinyanjui accused the previous Kinuthia Mbugua led regime of employing too many unnecessary workers who contributed to a burgeoning wage bill.