Sakaja Under Fire: Auditor General Uncovers Irregular Million-Dollar Payments
Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja is under scrutiny for alleged irregular disbursements of funds to certain staff members within his administration.
This comes after Auditor General Nancy Gathungu released a report examining the expenditure of the Nairobi County Government for the fiscal year ending in June 2023, revealing numerous inconsistencies in employee compensation.
In her report, the auditor general highlighted irregular disbursements totaling Ksh17 million to 26 county employees. The payments encompassed various allowances such as basic salary, rent, housing supplements, and service gratuity, as outlined in the report.
The report also highlighted that the Pay As You Earn (PAYE) tax was not deducted from the salaries of 393 officers as mandated by the Income Tax Act.
“Further, sixty-four (64) officers were paid arrears ranging between Ksh300,000 and Ksh6,779,220 all totaling Ksh82,340,479 during the financial year,” read part of the report.
“The nature of the allowances totaling Ksh100,104,975 could not be determined,” the report further read.
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It was additionally disclosed that roughly 252 employees were receiving net salaries amounting to less than one-third of their basic pay, which goes against the regulations outlined in the Human Resource Policies and Procedures Manual for the Public Service of 2016.
According to the Human Resource Policy, it is stipulated that public officials are prohibited from exceeding two-thirds of their basic salaries in financial commitments.
The Nairobi County government faced allegations of violating the Disability Act of 2003 when it was disclosed in the report that out of 13,354 employees, only 167 were identified as individuals with disabilities.
As stated by the Auditor General, this represents merely 1.25 percent of the entire workforce, falling short of the recommended threshold of 5 percent.
The Auditor General’s discoveries follow a month after the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) initiated inquiries into the misuse of substantial sums of money at the Nairobi City Hall from 2016 to 2019.
The anti-corruption commission’s inquiries revolved around Ksh18 billion amassed by the county government, which the EACC asserted was untraceable according to the administration’s records at that period.
Sakaja Under Fire: Auditor General Uncovers Irregular Million-Dollar Payments