COB urges Uasin Gishu County to fast-track acquisition of UPN

Eldoret, 

Tuesday, September 26, 2023

KNA by Kiptanui Cherono

The county government of Uasin Gishu has been advised to fast-track the acquisition of Unified Personal Numbers, UPN for its staff to ensure flawless payment of salaries through the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Database, IPPD system as stipulated by government policy.

The controller of budget Dr. Margret Nyakang’o in her County government's budget implementation report for the first nine months of the 2022/2023 financial year observed that Sh. 532 million of personnel emoluments accounting for 17.4 percent of the total payroll cost were processed manually.

Dr. Nyakang’o noted that manual payroll was prone to abuse, and may lead to loss of public funds where there is a lack of proper controls.

The report indicated that personnel emoluments cost amounting to Sh. 2.53 billion was processed through the IPPD system.

According to the controller, the use of manual payment was attributed to delays in the allocation of unified payroll numbers (UPN) to staff, staff designations that do not conform to the scheme of service and the IPPD system, and employment of staff on less than six-month contracts thus limiting their inclusion in the IPPD system. 

She also recommended that the County Public Service Board should regulate staff engagement on contract and casual workers as provided by the county government Act stressing strict compliance with approved staff establishment.

The controller further recommended to the county treasury to improve the vote book and budgetary control to ensure expenditure is within the approved budgets.

During the review period, the county had a total of Sh 7.15 billion available for its budget implementation, with Sh. 3.99 billion coming from an equitable share of revenue raised nationally and Sh. 729.31 million it raised as own-source revenue. The county also received sh98.5m as conditional grants, and it had a cash balance of Sh. 2.32 billion from the 2021/2022 financial year.

The countys’ approved first supplementary budget decreased by 8.8 percent from Sh13.21 billion last year to Sh. 12.05b. For the entire 2022/2023 FY the county expects to receive Sh. 8.07 billion as equitable share and generate Sh.1.4 billion from its own source revenue, it also expects to receive Sh. 258.28m as conditional grants. 

During the reporting period, county governments generated a total of Sh 37.81 billion from their own sources of revenue (OSR), which was 65.9 percent of the annual target of Sh57.37 billion. This was an improvement compared to Sh. 35.91 billion generated in the previous financial year.

The annual own-source revenue for Uasin Gishu County during the financial year 2022/2023 according to the controllers’ report is at Sh. 729.31m, an increase of seven percent compared to Sh. 681.31m raised during a similar period in the 2021/2022 FY. The county expects an estimated annual own source revenue of Sh.1.4b.

Major source of revenue for the county during the period was from business permits, Sh. 151.1m, street parking Sh.97.8m, and health sector Sh. 32.72m. 

Analysis of own source revenue as a proportion of the annual revenue target indicates that Kitui, Kirinyaga, and Vihiga counties achieved the highest performance of 84.6 percent, 80 percent, and 77.2 percent, respectively, on the other hand, 22 counties recorded below 50 percent performance, these include Kwale, Embu, Kisumu, Kakamega, Taita-Taveta, Tharaka-Nithi, Busia, Nairobi City, Garissa, Tana River, Nandi, Mandera, Wajir, Makueni, Homa Bay, Kisii, Kajiado, Nakuru, Murang’a, Kericho, Vihiga, and Nyamira.

The OCoB recommends that the twenty-two counties that recorded under-performance of OSR in the period under review should develop strategies to ensure the target is achieved and control expenditure to avoid pending bills in the coming financial year. 

During the period, the controller of the budget approved the withdrawal of Sh. 6.04b comprising Sh. 1.03b for development and Sh. 5.01b for recurrent programmes for Uasin Gishu county. Sh. 3.06b was released towards compensation to employees and Sh. 1.95b for operations and maintenance.

During the nine-month period, the county spent Sh.1.08 billion on development representing an absorption rate of 21.1 percent of the Sh. 5.9b of county spending, Sh. 4.83b was spent on recurrent programmes that represent 69.6 percent of the annual recurrent expenditure budget.

Courtesy; KNA