By The Weekly Vision
All is not well at the Wajir County Assembly after information leaked out that the Clerk may have been involved in underhand financial deals. Sources say the Clerk, Sheikh Mursal has been named in a number of irregularities which might have led to the loss of public funds. According to well-placed sources, the clerk has been involved in the employment of staff above the staffing level ceiling.
Records indicate that the assembly’s payroll for the month of June 2022 indicated the County Assembly had a total of 194 employees against the Commission on Revenue Allocation recommendation. The Commission through Circular No. CRA/FA/01 VOL 11 (22) on County Government Recurrent Expenditure ceilings addressed to County Governors and Speakers of County Assemblies, capped the maximum number of employees of County Assemblies under group 2 under which County Assembly of Wajir falls, at 100.
This implies that The County Assembly exceeded the maximum number of employees by 94. The clerk who is also the Secretary to the County Assembly Service Board is the Chief Executive Officer of the Board, the accounting officer of the Board, the administrative head of the County Assembly Service and the custodian of the Board’s records and should therefore take full responsibility and explain circumstances under which the County Assembly Service Board employed an extra 94 employees.
Due to a bloated workforce, the assembly pays staff a whopping Ksh.445,756,532 in salaries and allowances which represents 53% of the total receipts for the year 2021/2022 which stood at Ksh .843,071,694. This, therefore, means that the assembly spends more money on paying salaries and allowances.
It has also been discovered that the Wajir assembly has two sets of payrolls. One payroll is in the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Database (IPPD) with a total of 234 employees and Members of County Assembly (MCAs) while the other is in an Excel spreadsheet with a total of 4 employees, 3 Members of County Assembly and one Board member, contrary to Section 1.5.1 of the 33 Financial Accounting Recording and Reporting manual. It has also been discovered that the assembly made a payment of Ksh.750,000 as subscription fees to the Society of Clerks-at the Table (SOCATT). However, the organization is not anchored in law and therefore payments made to the organization cannot be considered as proper charges to public funds.
