Auditor General faults KeRRA for failing to recover Sh12million advances and imprests to staff
The Auditor General has faulted Kenya Rural Roads Authority (KeRRA) for advancing Ksh12million to staff as salary advances and imprests and failing to recover the amount in time.
According to the audit report for the period ending June 30, 2023, the AG Nancy Gathungu noted that failure to recover staff advances and imprests was a breach of the law.
Gathungu said the amount, which had not been paid for more than 90 days, was a violation of the laws.
“This is contrary to Regulation 93(5) of the Public Finance Management (National Government) Regulations, 2015 which states that a holder of a temporary imprests shall account or surrender the imprests within 7 working days after returning to duty station,” the Auditor General said.
KeRRA management did not respond the questions sent by the Informer Media Group on the audit queries.
The report further noted that under Section C .6 (1) and (5) of the Human Resource Policies and Procedures Manual for the Public Service May, 2016 states that the recovery period for salary advance will be limited to a period of not more than 12 months.
The report revealed that some staff had overcommitted their salaries beyond the two-thirds of basic salary limit requirement. It was observed that the officers’ net pay for the various months was less than a third of their basic pay.
It observed the action was contrary to Section 19(3)1 of the Employment Act, 2007, which states that “deduction may be made by an employer from the wages of his employee at any one time shall not exceed two thirds of such wages or such additional or other amount as may be prescribed by the Minister.’
On the road works expenditure, Ms Gathungu noted that 14 contracts for roads under newly awarded contracts at a contract cost of Ksh15.603 billion with the contract start dates of between November, 2020 and October, 2022.
She said that the management of KeRRA could not explain satisfactorily how six contracts of 14 awarded on low volume seal roads worth Ksh6.2 billion have not started despite the budgetary commitment and allocation of the amount.
The report also queried how a total Ksh423.9 million for projects classified as terminated had been retendered in 2023. “The works certified as at December, 2023 totalled Ksh7,325.6 million out of which Ksh6.9 billion had been paid leaving a pending amount payable of Ksh423.93 million was not satisfactorily explained,’ the reported noted.
The Auditor General further observed that in a total of 36 contracts which were said to be 100 per cent completed and at a total contract sum of Ksh76. 055 billion paid could be said again to have paid Ksh68.5 billion leaving a pending bill of Ksh9,984,905,343. ‘The management could not provide any explanation for this unsatisfactory situation,’ she said.
