Kisii,Kenya, May 23-County Public Accounts Committee Orders Kisii Governor Simba Arati to Align Human Resource Function to His Vision
The County Public Accounts Committee (CPAC) has ordered Kisii Governor Simba Arati to take urgent steps and align the county’s Human Resource function to his vision.
The Committee’s chairman Moses Kajwang’ said that there is serious misalignment between the vision of the governor and those of the directorate of human resources, which he observed has rendered the county dysfunctional in terms of personnel.
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Senator Kajwang issued the directive when the governor appeared before the Committee to discuss the Human resource establishment of the county on Monday.
The committee expressed its dismay with Governor Arati’s over payroll manipulation that has left the county government grappling with an annual wage bill, estimated to stand at Sh5.7 billion, which many say is unsustainable.
“There is a disconnect between your vision as the governor and that of the directorate of human resource,” said Senator Kajwang, further directing that the governor must take administrative action against employees who have manipulated the payroll.
The Committee faulted the governor for failure to take address the human resource malpractices in the county, more than eight months since assuming office.
An audit report by the National Treasury had flagged several human resource irregularities including shared payroll numbers and bank accounts, amended birth dates, and identical identification numbers, among others.
Others are double payments, staff working for both the national government and the county government and same birth dates.
Rather than address the issues flagged out by the National Treasury audit, the governor went ahead and commissioned his own audit.
But the committee found fault with the move, pointing out that the governor should first implemented the recommendations of the National Treasury before launching his own audit.
The committee gave the governor one month to go back and address the issues surrounding the findings of the National Treasury.
“After the one month period, you will have to demonstrate and convince this committee that you had added implementing the issues flagged out by the National Treasury.”
The governor has since promised to take the necessary steps to address the issues raised by the committee.
“I will take the necessary steps to ensure that the human resource function is aligned to my vision for the county,” said Governor Arati.
He further said that he will take administrative action against any employee found to have engaged in malpractices.
The committee’s directive comes at a time when the county government is facing a financial crisis.
The county is said to be owing its employees millions of shillings in salaries and allowances.
The crisis has led to a decline in service delivery in the county.
The committee’s directive is seen as a move to ensure that the county government is able to provide quality services to its residents.
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