A new report shows that counties have turned into employment bureaus, which diverting them from their initial role as drivers of grassroots development.
The Senate Public Health Committee report on the Auditor General’s findings on county employment shows that the devolved units spent as much as 60 per cent of their revenue on salaries.
Only 11 counties complied with the 35 per cent wage bill ceiling while 16 counties exceeded 50 per cent.
The spending is a gross violation of the Public Finance Management Regulations that limits expenditure on employee compensation which is inclusive of benefits and allowances to not more than 35 per cent of county revenue.
According to the report, the huge pay bills could be as a result of ghost workers, payroll manipulation and overall mismanagement of human resources.
While this goes on, development suffers. A classic example of misplaced priorities is Trans Nzoia county, which diverted Sh9.4 million collected at the Kitale County Referral Hospital to fund staff attending a devolution conference.
This at a time when the hospital has no functional intensive care or high-dependency units in a county of more than 1.2 million people.
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HISTORICAL QUOTE
“Courage is the most important of all the virtues because, without courage, you can’t practice any other virtue consistently.”
Maya Angelou: The American memoirist, poet, and civil rights activist was born on April 4, 1928
