County governments have taken a defensive stand against a new directive by the Controller of Budget (CoB) that would require them to provide details on the casual workers in the county governments.
The Controller of Budget, Dr Margaret Nyakang, has raised alarm over the apparent decision by governors to defy the directive through a circular released by the Council of Governors (CoG) on February 10, 2020.
The governors were responding to circular sent out to all county finance executives that demanded details on how counties were spending their money.
The circular, as reported by the Daily Nation on Thursday, February 13, specifically wanted information on casual employees who are ordinarily paid outside the official payroll.
Speaking to the publication, Nyakang'o explained the reason for her circular as a move to curb corruption and reduce the number of ghost workers.
“Some counties are paying upwards of Ksh20 million outside the official payroll. This introduces the risk of budget overruns as well as the risk of ghost workers."
The rationale for the decision was backed by the curious fact that certain employees, while described as 'casual', provided services to the county governments for more than three months.
This state of affairs raised significant questions as to why then these workers were not integrated into the official payroll.
The governors, on their part, did not accept the directive lying down. They have come out in strong protest against the move accusing the CoB of overstepping her mandate and have threatened to seek legal redress.
The Constitution under Article 228(5) gives the Controller of Budget powers to bar the release of funds if there exist glaring inconsistencies.
"The Controller shall not approve any withdrawal from a public fund unless satisfied that the withdrawal is authorised by law."
Protests from the Council of Governors argued that the details requested by the COB could be used as a weapon to deny the counties funds. Additionally, they provided that the COB's role was only to authorise the withdrawal of funds and not to audit the county governments.
The COB has, however, flagged undeniable realities given that county governments, which receive Ksh46.08 billion spent Ksh44.14 billion on recurrent expenditure, some of which went to paying these virtually undocumented workers.
To address this, the CoB requested that county governments provide full names, job titles, employment dates as well as the gross income of all county government employees.
The issue of the sums spent on expenditure was again raised on Wednesday 27, 2019. Treasury made an announcement on the return of ghost workers to the national payroll just five years after 12,000 were removed.
Ukur Yatani, the CS for Treasury had then argued that the ghost workers came as a result of weak payroll systems at the county and national level.
The country loses Ksh1.8 billion every year in payments made to ghost workers consisting of retired, deserted or deceased civil servants who continue to receive a government salary.
