Vihiga's unending staff audit gobbles Sh69.5 million

A probe committee at the Vihiga County assembly has revealed Governor Wilber Ottichilo's administration has spent at least Sh69.5 million on an unending staff audit that begun in 2018.

The human resource audit has been undertaken on different dates by the Directorate of Personnel Management (DPM) and a consulting firm identified as EMS Thamana Limited, the report of the five-member committee says.

DPM is domiciled in the office of the president and was invited to the county in 2018 by Governor Ottichilo, while EMS Thamana Limited is a private consultancy firm that was offered the tender by the Department of Public Service.

Banja Ward Representative Collins Ayugu chaired the select committee that has unearthed what has turned into a costly exercise, gobbling millions of public funds.

Other members of the probe committee are Ms Lucy Kemunto (nominated), Mr Peter Alukutsa (Luanda South), Ms Clementine Osodo (nominated) and Mr Edwin Kutai (North East Bunyore).

Costly process

The committee has raised the alarm over the costly exercise, amid a rising wage bill that now stands at Sh1.3 billion, up from Sh763.4 million in May 2020.

In the report, about three years after DPM had undertaken a staff audit and made recommendations, the County Public Service Board (CPSB) planned to undertake the completion and implementation of the process at a cost of Sh3.3 million in January 2021.

The plan by the board did not materialise, with the probe committee saying in its report that the Department of Public Service decided to procure the services of consultants to carry out the audit at a cost of Sh46 million.

The committee says EMS Thamana Limited landed the tender and has since been paid Sh2 million.

After the 2021 staff audit, the executive undertook a human resource verification exercise that cost the county Sh5.6 million.

According to the report, the verification exercise was held at Eldoret's Queens Garden Hotel, Wigot Gardens and Ciala Resort.

Allowances

After the verification process, another Sh2.5 million was paid as allowance to five officers from DPM for rendering technical expertise on validating, analysing and developing a report on human resource.

Similarly, according to the report of the select committee, daily stipend allowances totalling to Sh73,000 were paid to data entry clerks who were sourced by the DPM officers.

The county also spent another Sh383,270 as facilitation for officers who attended a training by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC).

SRC was training officers from county governments and state agencies on job evaluation.

The probe committee established that on March 1, 2021, County Secretary Ezekiel Ayiego wrote to the Department of Public Service seeking to know the objectivity of the human resource audits and the cost implications.

A month later, the report adds, Mr Ayiego sought to know the status of implementation of the first human resource audit report by DPM undertaken with the governor's blessings in 2018.

Payroll inconsistencies 

The report, which has since received the approval of the County Assembly, says the Controller of Budget, in her 2019/2020 report, indicated that the county's wage bill stood at 46.7 per cent of the total budget.

This, it adds, is above the 35 per cent threshold set by the Public Finance Management Act, 2012.

The report of the select committee indicts the executive for failing to ensure the wage bill is at the required threshold, a concern that is coming after massive sacking of workers to tame a bloated staff. 

Despite the costly human resource audit and mass sacking of staff in the devolved unit, the select committee notes that there are serious inconsistencies in the county's payroll, with no satisfactory explanation for the same.

"The problem has been consistent even in the year 2020 where there are over 2,000 new entries into the payroll," the report reads.

The assembly report is coming at a time when the Auditor-General has flagged inconsistencies in the county's payroll.

Through the latest 2018/19 audit report, the Auditor-General says a review of the integrated payroll and personnel database (IPPD) payrolls and bank records shows five employees are sharing a single bank account that is domiciled in Machakos.

The Auditor-General's report further reveals the existence of other employees who are earning through duplicate payroll information and sharing national identification numbers.

Other employees, the Auditor-General adds, are sharing duplicate bank account numbers while others have duplicate payroll entries.

The report of the county assembly now affirms that the CPSB is an independent body that should freely undertake its mandate without interference.

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