Governors urged to discard manual payroll over fault

The Council of Governors (CoG) Chief Executive Officer Mary Mwiti has urged county governments to ensure all employees are put under integrated payrolls.

Mwiti warned that the law does not approve manual payrolls, which are still in use in some counties.

She said the Controller of Budget was taking a lot of time to verify manual payrolls presented by county governments thus delaying salary payments of county employees.

Speaking in Murang’a county during a quarterly consultative meeting with county human resources directors, she also noted that the manual payrolls has been a loophole where ghost workers get paid.

She stated that this has seen some counties record inflated wage bills and this the integrated payroll will come in handy.

“All county governments must ensure their employees are put under the integrated payroll to enhance effective payment and accountability,” said Mwiti.

She said the CECs for Finance should ensure they implement the directive in their respective counties.

The CEO also said the human resource and payroll managers in the counties to ensure adopt technology in managing the work force saying it will make payment process easier.

“The payroll managers and human resource directors are in charge of the welfare of the employees and they should ensure they capture all their details in the system,” she added.

Mwiti also said there has been notable development in the counties since the inception of devolution ten years ago despite limited resources.

“There has been improvement of services in all the sectors which are under the county governments including health, infrastructure and agriculture,” she said.

Mwiti also called for prudent utilisation of resources in the counties for optimal benefits to the people.

On his part, Murang’a governor Irungu Kang’ata said digitisation of services has made work easier in his administration.

He said all the county’s employees are under the integrated payroll which helped weed out ghost workers.

“The employees both on contract or permanent basis are captured in the system and their payment is less tedious because there is no paper work,” he remarked.

“Adopting technology has helped streamline provision of services in the county and our administration work has also become easier,” he said.