wrongturn
Elder Lister
Sh19.6bn illegally spent on salaries
A new report shows that 34 counties breached the law and paid nearly Sh20 billion in salaries illegally.
nation.africa
Nandi County was the worst, spending 52 per cent of its Sh6.9 billion in revenues on salaries. The county’s wage bill during the year was Sh3.57 billion, which breached the ceiling set for salaries by Sh1.15 billion.
“This was contrary to Section 25(1)(b) of the Public Finance Management (County Governments) Regulations, 2015. No explanation has been provided by management for the failure to adhere to the legal threshold on personnel emoluments expenditure,” Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu notes.
The Auditor-General reveals that at least 19 counties spent over 40 per cent of their revenues on salaries during the financial year, which sums up to about Sh15 billion paid illegally. While Nandi leads in the list of shame in terms of the amount of money paid as salaries as a ratio of the county’s revenues, in actual money spent, Machakos and Kiambu counties paid the highest amounts.
Machakos County, which used 47 per cent of its Sh11 billion to pay salaries, spent Sh1.74 billion on compensation to employees illegally. The county had a wage bill of Sh5.6 billion during the year, Ms Gathungu reported. Kiambu County used Sh6.78 billion to pay its employees, overshooting the legally required maximum budget spending by Sh1.5 billion. The county’s wage bill was 45 per cent of its Sh15 billion revenues.
The other counties that used more than 40 per cent of their revenues to pay employees were Taita-Taveta, Garissa, Meru, Tharaka-Nithi, Nyeri, Kirinyaga, Elgeyo-Marakwet, Baringo, Laikipia, Bungoma, Kisumu, Kisii and Nyamira.
The Controller of Budget’s report during the year also shows that Isiolo, Wajir and Vihiga counties spent over 40 per cent of their revenues to pay employees.
“On aggregate, county governments spent Sh176.03 billion on personnel emoluments, which accounted for 44.2 per cent of the total expenditure of Sh398.01 billion and 40.3 per cent of available revenue of Sh436.61 billion in FY 2020/21,” Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakang’o stated in the report.