Isiolo loses Sh1 billion in payroll fraud

More than Sh1 billion has been lost through irregular salary payments in the last five years in Isiolo County.

The shocking revelation was made on Saturday during the presentation of an audit report by Integrated Payroll and Personnel Database (IPPD) conducted over a period of two months.

Isiolo Governor Mohamed Kuti said among the anomalies in the payroll were irregular promotions, ghost workers, double payments, hiked job groups, double registration, exaggerated leave allowance and inflated arrears.

In the more than 110-page document, an undisclosed employee is said to have accumulated up to Sh55 million in arrears while he is in job group L.

“It is not possible for an employee in job group L to accumulate such amounts in arrears, additional to his salary,” Dr Kuti said.

WAGE BILL
Dr Kuti, who unveiled a new team to take charge of the payroll, said the regional government will implement the recommendations by IPPD - maintaining that appropriate measures will be taken to recover the lost funds.

Dr Kuti, who was accompanied by County Public Service Board and county executive members, said Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) and other relevant government agencies will be brought on board to help recover the lost funds.

The wage bill, he said, has been on an upward trajectory since the inception of devolution.

Isiolo receives the second least disbursement from the national exchequer after Lamu.

The county’s recurrent expenditure is almost a third of the annual allocation, a fact that jeopardises funding of development projects.

“We were forced to invite IPPD experts to scrutinise our payroll after noticing inconsistencies in the amount of salaries paid every month. The amounts kept on varying every month raising an eyebrow,” the county boss said.

SALARIES
The audit report reveals details of how some employees have been conspiring with payroll officers to swindle funds from the county’s Treasury through multiple payments of salaries.

Some employees are said to have backdated their ages by up to nine years or more to avoid retirement, denying qualified and vibrant youth a chance for gainful employment.

“Some employees have been receiving salaries twice, manually and through the computerised system, others have fake Identity Cards and PINs yet they continue drawing salaries from county coffers,” Governor Kuti said.

The county has 1,300 employees.

In terms of promotions, the report unearths an employee who has been promoted thrice within one year while others have worked for 25 years since the defunct county council era without any promotion.

In bid to reduce the wage bill, the county government has already sent casual workers parking.