State House and New Kenya Cooperative Creameries (KCC) have 975 employees on payroll but not captured in the staff register, topping the list of public entities with unexplained workforce.
The Public Service Commission's (PSC) latest disclosures on the status of compliance of government entities with the values and principles of the Constitution says there was an excess of 19,467 members of staff recorded in the staff registers against the approved filled vacancies.
The PSC report named State House and New KCC among the six organisations that had high disparities with an excess of more than 400 members of staff each compared to employees recorded in the staff register and called for an audit to explain this.
State House had 483 while New KCC had 492 employees that were not captured in the staff register in the year ended June 2023, coming in the period 289 other government organisations had fewer staff than approved at an average of 33 percent.
“The number of staff in the staff registers did not tally with the number of vacancies filled. The unexplained variance could create room for unauthorised recruitment of staff,” said the PSC.
“An audit be undertaken to establish the reason for the variance of the number of staff in the staff registers against the number of vacancies filled.”
National Treasury estimates show that national government spending on salaries and wages is expected to cost taxpayers Sh589.5 billion in the financial year ending June 2024, up from Sh539.6 billion in the previous financial year. This is projected to hit Sh983.8 billion in 2027/2028.
PSC states the Constitution requires the PSC to promote, evaluate, and report to the President and Parliament the extent to which the values and principles in Articles 10 and 232 have been complied with.
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This means President William Ruto will be appraised about the compliance gaps, part of which lies in the State House.
The unexplained staff raises fears that taxpayers could be spending millions of shillings every month to pay non-existent workers or a mystery workforce with no known official duties.
This even as the public suffers in the hundreds of other entities which are understaffed and unable to serve citizens.
“An organisation that operates with less staff against the approved staff levels is understaffed and therefore unlikely to discharge its mandate efficiently and effectively. Organisations that operate with excess staff levels may lead to under-utilisation of staff, bloated wage bills, and strained workplace facilities,” said the PSC.
The PSC report is based on findings from 523 public organisations that were surveyed to find their compliance with values and principles in areas such as service delivery, professional ethics, good governance, transparency, accountability, performance management and good use of taxpayers’ money.
The overall compliance index was 46.01 percent, a slight improvement from 41.7 percent.
