Between July 2024 and June 2025, at least 83 employees of the Samburu County Government earned millions of shillings in salaries despite having no designated job titles.
An audit has now exposed what appears to be a massive payroll irregularity at the devolved unit, revealing cases of employees holding positions illegally, irregular recruitment practices and workers drawing salaries without clear deployment.
In her report for the financial year ending June 30, 2025, Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu details widespread irregularities in the county's human resource management system, including the recruitment of staff without following due process.
“During their recruitment process, there were no advertisements, interviews or shortlisting conducted for the positions before hiring. There was also no evidence of vacancy declarations before recruitment, while in some cases personal files containing employment records were missing,” Ms Gathungu states in the report.
A review of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Database and manual payroll records revealed that 83 employees were on the county payroll despite having no recorded job designations or responsibilities.
“The 83 employees had no recorded job designations or responsibilities, raising concerns regarding proper deployment, supervision and accountability of staff,” the report states.
The audit found that key employee biodata was missing from records, including National Social Security Fund numbers, national identity card numbers, dates of birth, appointment dates, Kenya Revenue Authority PINs and bank account details.
In another anomaly, auditors discovered that two employees shared the same national identity card number but under different payroll numbers.
“No explanation was provided to justify how one identity card could have multiple payroll entries.”
Governor Lati Lelelit's administration was also put on the spot for creating a “Governor's Delivery Unit” and recruiting staff without the involvement of the County Public Service Board (CPSB), as required by law.
The audit revealed that 29 employees were hired under the unit without approval from the CPSB.
By the time of the audit, the employees had been paid approximately Sh60 million. Between July and November 2024 alone, they received Sh27.6 million in salaries.
“The Governor's Delivery Unit under which they have been working was not provided for in the approved organisational structure and the duties and responsibilities of the members of the team were not defined,” the report states.
Auditors further noted that no records were provided to show advertisements, applications, shortlisting, interviews or selection processes for the employees.
“This was contrary to Section 68 of the County Governments Act, 2012, which requires the County Public Service Board to maintain records of all applications received in response to advertisements inviting applications,” the report says.
The audit also established that when the unit was created, there was no County Public Service Board in office, as the terms of previous board members had already expired.
In another finding, the county was faulted for deducting Sh2.7 million in Pay As You Earn (PAYE) tax from employees living with disabilities who were legally entitled to tax exemptions.
A review of payroll records between June 2024 and June 2025 showed that 19 employees with disabilities had tax deductions amounting to Sh2.7 million despite being duly registered and eligible for exemptions under the Persons with Disabilities Act.
“These employees were duly registered as persons with disabilities and therefore eligible for tax exemption under Section 12(3) of the Persons with Disabilities Act,” the report states.
The audit further revealed that the county paid salaries amounting to Sh59.4 million outside the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Database system.
This was contrary to National Treasury regulations, which require salaries, allowances and arrears for county employees to be processed through the IPPD system.
Auditors also established that the county lacked an annual recruitment plan despite hiring 748 employees during the financial year under review.
The County Public Service Board had no recruitment plan to guide the hiring process, and no evidence was provided to show that budgetary allocations had been secured before the recruitment exercise.
