A system malfunction at the County Government of Homa Bay has seen employees receive up to three times their pay for the month ending June 2021.
The county staff termed the technical hitch as a blessing in disguise following prolonged delays in disbursement of their salaries in the preceding months.
However, the technical hitch was also a curse to a section of employees who received less their monthly wages while others did not receive any pay at all.
The county Human Resource Management Director Omondi Auma blamed the technicality on two banks tasked with processing of the county employees’ salaries noting that close to 3,000 staff did not receive any pay.
"There were a lot of discrepancies in how the employees were paid from two major financial institutions," he stated.
The county staff receive their salaries from two commercial banks with have branches in Homa Bay town.
Mr Omondi, however, assured that the county government was working to correct the anomaly within the shortest time possible.
Through a memo, the human resource office has instructed employees who received extra pay to reimburse it to the county failure to which recovery measures will be put in place.
The county workers have been asked to deposit the extra pay in the county government's salaries account and submit the receipts of payment to the payroll manager for acknowledgement.
The Kenya National Union of Civil Servants County Chairman Tom Akech revealed that he started receiving calls from some of the staff members complaining about delayed June salaries.
He further noted that the error had affected the employee’s financial plans including preparations to send their children back to school, loan payments and insurance contributions.
The workers have called for Governor Cyprian Awiti and his deputy Hamilton Orata and the County Secretary to address them on the issue.
