Thousands of public sector employees, including in the President’s office, State House and other key government departments, are operating on tight budgets as their payslips are less than one-third of their basic salary, an audit has revealed.
- •The 2023/24 Auditor-General’s report shows that 2,535 officers in the State Department of Correctional Services, and 3, 815 employees in the Internal Security and National Administration department, received a net salary less than one third of their basic salary.
- •The law states that all deductions made by an employer from salaries of employees at any one time should not exceed two thirds of such wages or salaries.
- •State House has 78 employees whose take home salaries breached the law, while the Executive Office of the President and the Office of the Deputy President breached the law with the payslips of 20 and 42 employees respectively.
“Salary deductions exceeding two thirds of basic pay may lead to low productivity or subject the officers to pecuniary embarrassment,” Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu said in the audit report.
According to the Office of the Controller of Budget, which paid 20 employees below the legal limit, the massive deductions were “occasioned by the implementation of Housing Levy and the introduction of a department deductions in August 2023.” There are other likely reasons such as employees overcommitting their salaries to loan instalment deductions and other liabilities.
Other government units that breached the limit include: National Treasury (184), The State department of devolution (26), Foreign Affairs (165), Diaspora department (7), medical services (386), Roads (12), while technical and vocational training had 222 workers. The State Department of Performance and Delivery Management was flagged for underpaying eight employees.
Interestingly, the list also includes the Salaries and Remuneration Commission whose payroll records showed that it breached the law for 21 employees, while the Public Service Commission was flagged for payroll breaches to 69 employees.
