Sort out payroll system to help tame public wages

By Tom Onyango

Kenya: All the rhetoric and political gimmicks, including voluntary pay cuts, won’t reduce the bloated public service wage bill unless the root of the problem is understood by all. Here are the facts. By 1994, the civil service had 240,000 staff in 35 ministries and departments.

They ranged between 1,000 to over 90,000 in the Office of the President, which was the largest ministry.

Paying staff was a challenge because the payroll administration was manual and a large segment of officers could be transferred from headquarters to field offices and vice versa.

This was cumbersome, caused salary delays and gave inaccurate determinations of staffing levels. It also led to poor accountability of funds

From 1994 to 1995 consultations began in the search for an effective payroll system, giving birth to the computerised Integrated Payroll and Personnel Database) (IPPD). Before its inception, government ministries and departments used the personnel information systems.

Before, it was difficult to monitor recruitment, training, posting, transfers, seniority lists, promotions and retirements in Government. It was difficult to resolve salary issues, enforce statutory deductions, process loans and ensure their recovery. Accessing basic personnel information such as identity card numbers, education qualifications, full dates of appointments and birth information was a challenge.

Data had to be retrieved through bulky printouts using diskettes and so the information could be easily compromised affecting the integrity of the process. Human resource systems did not share data due to lack of a linked network and so things like data gathering and entries were duplicated.

A lot of time was wasted and public services were thus inconsistent and unreliable. Ministries and departments maintained personnel data on record cards and personal files. Much time was wasted trying to access and retrieve data without control of access levels or proper validation.

Delays in processing of disciplinary matters and assessment of liabilities for calculation of pensions and gratuity were common. Teachers’ salaries, for instance, were always delayed.

The adoption of IPPD improved matters but now it is virtually obsolete.  The current system is nearly 20 years old, having been designed in1996/97 by officials from the Ministry of State for Public Service and other departments. It was prototyped and tested in seven pilot sites (Ministries/Departments) in 1997/98, including user training in basic computer skills. System testing was accomplished using the trained staff and IPPD prototype to capture the 1997/98 headcount data in their respective ministries/departments.

With time only a few could manage the data and this created ghost workers. It could be manipulated by these few to compromise the payroll. It has made it difficult for the Government to know with accuracy the number of people on its payroll.

IPPD was meant to bring uniformity in management of personnel records in ministries and departments by capturing identity card numbers, educational qualifications and dates of appointments and birth. What is needed now is a system that allows staff to upload their data online.

It has now become a challenge to control payroll and personnel registries, skill inventories and budgeting of personnel emoluments using IPPD.  The Government is now running a fully functional integrated financial management system (Ifmis) rooted in Oracle software.

It should also migrate the payroll and human resource systems to the Oracle database and applications, more so because there is now a strong workforce skilled in the Oracle database. Personnel data from all relevant sources should be cleaned up, including head count data, payroll and paper-based records.

In addition to the Government, other stakeholders would be insurance and hire purchase companies, commercial banks, the Kenya Revenue Authority and cooperative and credit societies, which have benefited due to efficient means of effecting salary deductions through new systems.

The IPPD arose out of a need to contain a huge wage bill, clean up the payroll, validate its data, and streamline its administration. The new Human Resource and payroll system for 47 counties would have a one-off expenditure of approximately Sh20 billion and would process independent payrolls for each county at a cost of Sh2 million per county, as well as other Government departments and agencies.

Decisions and actions would be timely and reliable and the security of stored records would be assured under Oracle. Report generation would be automatic and less prone to errors. President Uhuru Kenyatta should order an audit of the current IPPD, which is run by cartel in the public service for their own selfish needs.

The writer comments on topical issues.