Nandi County Government has been put on the spot over the unsustainable wage bill that was equivalent to 44 percent of the reported revenue of Sh6.4 billion that led to county staff being paid Sh3.3 billion in the financial year 2024/2025.
Nandi Governor Stephen Sang who appeared before the Senate County Public Accounts Committee was taken to task over the high wage bill which is excess of the threshold of 35 percent prescribed in Regulation 250) (b)of the Public Finance Management Act.
The Committee Chairman Moses Kajwang pointed out that the limit set for county Governments expenditure on wages and benefits for public officers pursuant to section 107 (2) of the Act shall not exceed 35 percent of the County Government's total revenue which the county had breached.
“In addition, there was no evidence that the County Executive Committee Member for Finance and Economic planning tabled a bill in the County Assembly to control the wage bill, in this circumstances, the Nandi County administration was in breach of the law,” said Kajwang.
Sang replied that the contributing factor to this variance can be observed within the health sector with alignment to the National Government's commitment to Universal Health Coverage with Nandi County actively working to enhance access to affordable healthcare services for its citizens.
He said this commitment has manifested in inauguration of new health facilities and expansion of existing medical infrastructure with the Department of Health and Sanitation undertaking recruitment of additional medical personnel to adequately staff the expanded and newly established facilities.
Sang told Senators that the Salary and Remuneration Commission (SRC) has undertaken an upward review of salaries in four phases, which have been implemented annually over the past four years, steadily increasing the wage bill in the county.
“Many staff members, during the audit review period, had remained stagnant in one job group, necessitating promotions in accordance with the Human Resource Manual and Scheme of Service to the next grade,” said Sang.
Nandi Senator Samson Cherarkey raised concerns over anomalies in routine road maintenance where the county administration spent Sh651 million which included Sh10 million incurred on hiring of selected road maintenance equipment.
Cherarkey pointed out there were no need assessment reports showing the equipment required for every road works for each of the roads and a detailed scope of work carried out in each of the roads and their estimated cost was not provided for review.
The Nandi Senator said there was no information indicating the number of kilometers done and instead, the supporting documents only indicated the specific roads done and not the length or kilometer, further, there were no completion certificates.
“There were no daily machine utilisation sheets showing the daily machine hours worked and the out-put achieved, there were no daily measurement sheets to show how the billing for road maintenance work was done commensurate to hours the equipment was hired,” said Cherarkey.
The Governor said his administration is finalising a comprehensive policy framework that will guide the planning, procurement, and utilization of hired equipment with the policy outlining the criteria for when hiring is necessary, documentation requirements, approval processes and mechanisms to prevent duplication between hired machinery and county-owned equipment.
Sang said it was not true that the work plans for road works were not availed for review as they had been attached to the payment vouchers presented with the work plan referring to the bill of quantities, these work plans give detailed scope of activities, material requirements, equipment needs, estimated costs and quality standards.
Cherarkey wondered why the County Aggregation Industrial Park (CAIP) which was to be done at the cost of Sh520 million was not yet complete more than two years later despite the county administration contracting a local company with effect from August 15, 2023.
“The project was jointly funded by the National Government and County Government, however the level of funding to be provided by each Government was not clear since no agreements or commitment between the two levels of Government was provided for audit,” said Cherarkey.
He noted the project completion date was expected to be on 15 August 2025, however, physical inspection conducted in November, 2025 revealed that the work had stalled three months to completion date in May, 2025 at 30 per cent completion level with contractor not on site.
The Governor agreed there were challenges in the implementation of the project which had achieved a 30 per cent at the time of the audit review and noting the challenges reported by the contractor primarily arising from unforeseen substructure conditions and heavy rains experienced at the onset of the project.
“My administration had undertaken several interventions to accelerate progress including issuing default notices to the contractor and holding follow-up engagements to fast-track implementation and that the Project Steering Committee duly served its mandate within the appointed term and was subsequently succeeded by the Project Implementation Committee,” said Sang.
