Nyamira to recover wages from irregular promotions
The Nyamira County government yesterday started the process of recovering money earned by nearly 1,000 employees through irregular promotions.
The recovery is scheduled to start with the August salaries in the exercise which affects employees from all the 10 departments in the county.
Governor Amos Nyaribo said the workers were promoted under shady circumstances, which cost the county hundreds of millions of shillings.
In a report that was presented to the County Executive Committee, Nyaribo said the promotions were done through computers and that there was no evidence of the relevant departments awarding the job grades to the employees.
“It is just funny that all the promotions were earned through the computers and the investigating committee never came across any files or documentation on the promotions of the affected people,” Nyaribo said.
According to Nyaribo, the County Public Service Board had disowned the promotions.
Promotions audit
“The county government through the CPSB has been analysing all promotions and re-designation that have been effected in the county’s payroll with a view to confirming whether they were approved by the board as provided for in its mandate and now the Public Service Management department has taken over to implement the recommendations,” Nyaribo said.
In the promotions that were being audited, most of the employees had earned higher grades without going through the requisite procedures as stipulated by the Kenya Human Resources Policies and Procedures Manual for the Public Service 2016, according to the governor.
In the report, about 150 employees were promoted twice in less than three years.
In one case, an official was promoted every year from 2016 to 2019 from job Group K in March 2016 to job Group L in 2017 and job Group N in October 2018 before moving to job group P in March 2019.
In another case, an employee who was serving at job Group K in March 2016 was promoted to Group L in October 2017 to Group N in January, 2018 before resting in job Group P in November 2018.
Another employee who was serving at job Group J in 2016 was promoted to job Group L in January 2021 before moving to job Group N in the next month.
The governor pointed out another case that saw an officer who was serving at job Group H in 2017 moved to job group M in October 2020, jumping job Groups J, K and L.
Addressing the press in his office yesterday, Nyaribo said that all those promoted irregularly will be demoted and be surcharged all the money they have been earning through illegal promotions.
He advised the affected employees to appeal if they are not satisfied with the verdict.
