Bomet Governor Hillary Barchok was on the defensive before the Senate County Public Accounts Committee (CPAC) after Senators questioned whether competence guides the recruitment of county staff in his administration.

Governor Barchok was appearing before the Committee to respond to audit queries raised in the county’s financial statements when Senators accused his administration of presiding over widespread incompetence in human resource management, particularly within a department considered critical to the running of the county.

The Committee’s concern stems from an audit finding indicating that the county may have lost up to Sh48 million after 1,454 officers were paid salaries and allowances that had not been approved by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC).

“The buck stops at your door and you must take full responsibility for what is happening. Your human resource management is in a mess. You can’t correct the mess. You are presiding over a mess,” Senator Enock Wambua told the Governor.

Senator Edwin Sifuna added that the audit findings were a clear indication that competence does not inform recruitment at the county, arguing that the magnitude of the irregularities pointed to the calibre of staff handling human resource matters.

According to the Auditor-General’s report, Bomet County failed to comply with fiscal responsibility requirements on the wage bill and engaged in multiple irregular payments, including salaries and personal allowances, special house allowance, extraneous allowance, special salaries, non-practicing allowance and uniform allowance.

The audit further cited overpayment of basic salaries, irregular payment of responsibility allowance, flawed recruitment processes, irregular engagement of casual workers, failure to comply with the law on employment of persons with disabilities, irregular promotions, retention of staff beyond the mandatory retirement age, non-compliance with the one-third basic salary rule, and failure to observe the legal requirements on ethnic composition of staff.

Out of the Sh48 million questioned, 706 staff members were paid Sh14 million in allowances that had not been approved by the SRC, while 131 employees received Sh2.5 million as extraneous allowance they were not entitled to.

Additionally, 17 officers were paid special salaries amounting to Sh2.9 million but also received basic salaries and other allowances totalling Sh9.2 million, resulting in double payment.

The audit also established that 36 officers were paid Sh1.2 million in non-practicing allowance despite not being eligible. The payment was contrary to an SRC circular dated August 10, 2023, which restricts the allowance to medical officers, dental officers and pharmacists.

On uniform allowance, 428 nurses were paid Sh4.3 million, contrary to SRC guidelines which classify the allowance as non-remunerative and require nurses to be issued with uniforms instead.

Further, 83 officers inherited from defunct local authorities were paid basic salaries amounting to Sh41 million, exceeding the recommended maximum of Sh25.5 million under the collective bargaining agreement of September 1, 2012, resulting in an overpayment of Sh15.5 million.

Another 53 officers were paid Sh1.4 million in responsibility allowance despite the allowance not being provided for in their appointment letters, contrary to the Salaries and Remuneration Commission Act, 2011.

On recruitment, the audit revealed that the County Public Service Board hired 47 officers without preparing the mandatory annual human resource and recruitment plans. Two officers were recruited into positions that could not be traced in the staff establishment, while four others were hired into posts that had neither been declared vacant nor advertised.

“Everything that should have gone wrong in Bomet County has already gone wrong,” Senator Wambua remarked in frustration.

Governor Barchok, however, maintained that the situation had improved since he assumed office in 2018, describing the clean-up of the payroll as an ongoing process.

“The situation is better than where we found it. It was worse,” the Governor said, noting that his administration had conducted three major payroll clean-ups, including engaging human resource consultants.

“I can assure the Committee we are almost there. These may look bad, but they are small things compared to where we started. We are not at 100 per cent, but we have done something,” he said.

He added that the county had scrapped some allowances and initiated recovery measures for irregular payments already made.