Counties in a spot as wage bill rises by Sh12b in nine months

Majority of the 47 counties are still struggling with ballooning wage bill, a new report by the Controller of Budget has revealed.

So dire is the situation that the wage bill increased by about Sh12.5 billion in the first nine months of the 2018/19 financial year, with the counties splashing Sh120 billion to offset wage. In a similar period in 2017/18, counties spent Sh108 billion on wage bill.

Controller of Budget Agnes Odhiambo said continued increase in the wage bill is likely to affect implementation of development activities even as counties also struggle to raise local revenue.

“The Office noted with concern the increase in wage bill, which is unsustainable and will crowd out spending on key development activities,” said Odhiambo.

In the report, Nairobi County topped the list of counties that spent a lot of money on wages at Sh11.2 billion.

The figure shows the amount Governor Mike Sonko’s government spent to offset salaries consumed a huge chunk of its budget.

But it is not only Nairobi that struggled with offsetting salaries. In other counties expenditure on salaries took more than 65 per cent of their budgets, with Machakos leading the group at 66.4 per cent followed by Embu at 66.2 per cent.

Machakos increased its expenditure on salaries by about Sh500 million, with the county spending about Sh3.9 billion on personal emoluments as compared to the Sh3.4 billion the previous year.

In Rift Valley, nearly all the 14 counties failed to address ballooning wage bill, although some of them registered increased local revenue.

Nakuru County, which was among the top three highest spenders, spent about Sh4.2 billion to offset wages.

The development is set to elicit fresh debate on measures that counties should take to address the problem of wage bill.

In April this year, stakeholders in the fourth Legislative Summit said there was a dire need for counties to solve the problem of a bloated workforce.

Kisumu Governor Anyang’ Nyong’o suggested that counties should scrap the employment of workers on permanent terms and instead replace it with contracts as part of the efforts to address wage bill. Kakamega County, however, reduced its expenditure on wage bill by about 4.9 per cent.