AfriPulse
Taxpayers could be paying close to Sh6 billion in salaries and allowances to ghost workers, according to an Interim Payroll Audit Report.
The report, prepared jointly by the Auditor General and the State Department of Public Service and Human Capital, also identified irregularities in public servants’ records.
To test the effectiveness of the Government Payroll System, the department commissioned an independent special audit of HRIS-K covering the 2024/2025 financial year. The review assessed payroll integrity, system integration, compliance, access controls, cybersecurity safeguards, and readiness of the supporting infrastructure.
The audit found that HRIS-K remains inadequately integrated with key systems, with more than 300 state corporations still yet to migrate to and onboard onto the platform.
It also revealed payroll data inconsistencies, including missing surnames, invalid KRA PINs, multiple IDs linked to the same individual, and shared bank accounts.
An Interim Payroll Audit Report found that 5,778 employees were recorded as having been posted before they were hired. It also noted that three employees hired in 2023 had future birth years listed as 2046 to 2049.
The report identified irregular earnings totaling Sh5.898 billion, including 15,331 cases of special salary worth Sh4.336 billion, arrears below six months amounting to Sh712.6 million, and arrears beyond six months totaling Sh555.1 million.
The audit also discovered that about 720 editors altered 4,732,082 payroll records without timestamps, and it found 77 employees who edited their own records.
It further determined that the system lacks Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), rate limiting, database logging, and monitoring. The report added that the platform has not undergone penetration testing for more than a year.
Public Service PS Jane Imbunya stated that the HRIS-K payroll audit exposes deep systemic flaws in integration, governance, and controls, leaving the government payroll vulnerable to major financial, operational, and cybersecurity risks.
“However, our decisive actions, especially deploying a multi-agency technical team and resetting our governance, prove the government’s commitment to reform,” Imbunya said.
Moving forward, the Department of Public Service believes that firm compliance enforcement, steady funding, and tight inter-agency coordination will dictate the success of this payroll overhaul. Imbunya noted that the ongoing forensic review and planned system upgrades offer a vital chance to restore integrity, boost transparency, and finally manage the wage bill sustainably.
Alongside the forensic review, the government is leaning on technical support from the National Intelligence Service (NIS) to completely reset governance and fix key control weaknesses.
“We will continue to strengthen integration and encourage full compliance with HRIS-K, while enhancing accountability across all institutions,” Imbunya added. “We are also committed to progressively enhancing system integrity through improved security measures, continuous data validation, and appropriate resolution of payroll anomalies.”
However, the department warned that Parliament omitted the Sh138 million Treasury had awarded to optimize the HRIS-Ke infrastructure during its review of the 2026 Supplementary Estimates I. The department fears this funding cut could stall the momentum of their payroll reforms.
“Non-compliance by the players in the payroll reform journey impedes/slows down the payroll reform agenda,” Imbunya concluded.
Source: NairobiWire.com | Read the Full Story…
