The government has announced a plan to incorporate other deductions needed from civil servants into the Unified Human Resource (UHR) system.
In the 2024, Budget Policy Statement (BPS), the government revealed that the integration will be completed by July 2024.
This system was introduced in July 2023 and was linked to the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) iTax to facilitate the filing of PAYE tax associated with individual employees and total monthly PAYE tax obligations from the State Departments.
UHR was introduced to consolidate Human Resource and Payroll data in the Public Service for access through a single warehouse.
"The government will incorporate the other deductions to enable all remittances to be sent to respective entities including Pension Funds and other employees' contributions schemes by July 2024," read part of the BPS.
In January 2021, the State Department for Public Service selected a task force to create the prototype for the UHR, which replaced the Government Human Resource Information System (GHRIS).
The former Public Service Principal Secretary Mary Kimonye remarked that the new system would standardise Human Resource practices across the public service, minimise manual Human Resource processes, and create a trusted single source of Human Resource information for decision-making purposes.
According to the government, the system will continue to be rolled out in phases. Phase 1 was undertaken in September 2023 when the system was rolled out in all ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and counties.
Reports indicated that the rollout was set to weed out ghost workers on the payroll, whose salary deductions lead to financial losses. The Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) lauded the system, stating that it would help keep track of national and county government salaries.
Phase 2 involved rolling out the system to all State agencies that have adopted the Unified Payroll Numbering (UPN) System including the Teachers Service Commission (TSC). TSC has issued about 349,000 teachers with UPN as it strived to streamline payroll management and ensure the timely and accurate disbursement of salaries countrywide.
In Phase 3, the state will issue UPN to all commissions and independent offices, state corporations, public universities and agencies by July 2024.
Last year, the program faced challenges including salary delays upon implementation, with the Ministry of Public Service attributing it to technical hitches.
