KPA paid employees their full salaries and allowances totalling Ksh. 36,780,469 contrary to Kenya Ports Authority Human Resource Manual, 2017 Paragraph C.4 (b) and K.5 (a) which requires that payment of salaries be based on actual hours worked and stoppage of salary to employees absent for a continuous period of ten days
All is not well at the Human Resource Department at the giant Kenya Ports Authority at Kilindini, Mombasa. A report by the Auditor General says that the HR officers colluded with some employees and were paid a whooping Ksh. 312,021,986 for hours not worked.
The HR offices fraudulently approved payment for hours not worked when staff came to work late and when staff left work before time. The report further reveals that 239 employees were absent for a continuous period of more than ten days each resulting in 78,456 hours lost through staff absenteeism.
However, the employees were paid their full salaries and allowances totalling Ksh. 36,780,469 contrary to Kenya Ports Authority Human Resource Manual, 2017 Paragraph C.4 (b) and K.5 (a) which requires that payment of salaries be based on actual hours worked and stoppage of salary to employees absent for a continuous period of ten days.
The HR officers have also been involved in the irregular payment of acting allowances where Ksh. 1,314,145 was paid to staff as monthly acting allowances beyond the six months in the year under review.
A review of human resource records indicated that eight employees had been serving in acting positions for more than six months, contrary to Paragraph B11(f)I of the Kenya Ports Authority Human Resources Manual, 2017, which states that ‘acting appointments shall be limited to six months at any given time. Consequently, Management is in breach of the law.
Further, a Payroll audit for the year ended 30 June 2020 indicated that the authority had incurred employee cost of Ksh. 15,642,702 in respect of two employees who had attained the mandatory retirement age of 60 years.
This is contrary to the Human Resource Policies and Procedures Manual for the Public Service, 2015 which states that ‘all officers shall retire from the Service on attaining the mandatory retirement age of 60 years, 65 years for persons with disabilities.
