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Wavinya Ndeti unveils five task forces to probe 'dirty' county payroll

Governor Wavinya Ndeti. [Erastus Mulwa, Standard]

Governor Wavinya Ndeti has unearthed malpractices in the county's payroll system, putting on the spot the integrity of financial operations under the previous regime.

Citing data obtained from the State Ministry of Public Service, Ndeti outlined a litany of shocking instances where the county government allegedly lost colossal amounts of money through fraudulent payouts and skewed manipulation of the county payroll.

Among the statistics are 14 cases of officers bearing the same payroll number, but with different Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) Personal Identification Numbers (PINs) that are currently drawing salaries.

Ndeti claimed the Public Service Commission (PSC) had unearthed some 2,334 cases of staff drawing both special and rental house allowances, and a further 109 cases of individuals earning special salaries.

The county boss also reported 229 cases of duplicate payments of arrears, and another 37 cases of irregular gross monthly pay.

At the same time, there were also 1,226 cases of questionable tax arrears payments and 10 cases of unresolved disciplinary cases beyond six months.

The governor also revealed five cases of underage persons drawing salaries, terming the situation as "baffling and completely unacceptable".

"Our children are fainting in schools for lack of food while they're drawing double salaries illegally. These people deserve to be in jail and there will be no mercy," she said.

The revelations emerged as the county chief witnessed the swearing in of members of five task forces she appointed to probe various administrative matters in the county government.

They include the Pending Bills Verification and Audit task force to be led by Mutua Kilaka, Lands and Housing Verification to be led by Sylvester Muli, and the Human Resources Audit led by Dr Joseph Nzioki.

Others are the team on Vehicles Inspection led by Joseph Munyao, and the ICT task force under the leadership of Dr Charles Kaloki.

The committees are all expected to hand in a report with recommendations to the governor within 30 days.