Counties told to migrate to unified UHR system

Counties have until October 1 to migrate their management systems to a unified human resource platform used across the public service in a new effort to curb pilferage, especially in paying workers.

Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakango said the 47 devolved units have less than two weeks to transition to the Unified Human Resource UHR Information System for the public service.

The counties are currently using a mix of manual and Integrated Payroll Personnel Database IPPD that have been a convenient platform for fraud given that manual systems are prone to abuse.

The migration to the UHR system is part of commitments that the National Treasury made to the International Monetary Fund last year in a bid to tame graft in the payment of workers at national and county levels.

In line with the guidelines of the Head of the Public Service, all the County governments, including the County Assemblies, must migrate to the Unified Human Resource HR Information System for the public service by 1st October 2022, in line with the guidelines of the Head of the Public Service, said Ms Nyakango.

Ms Nyakango said that no of the counties had shifted to the unified system by the end of June.

Payment of staff salaries, staff salaries and other benefits in the counties continues to grow every year due to system gaps, preventing the delivery of basic services like health and construction of roads, water and sewerage lines.

The push for counties to shift to a common system that brings together all public entities comes amid increasing cases of manual payments worth billions of shillings.

The CoB report shows that counties paid salaries of Sh 15.63 billion for the financial year ended June, with Ms Nyakango singling out the payments for possible fraud.

The lack of personal numbers for dozens of employees in counties involved in the payments has sparked fears about the existence of ghost workers on their payrolls, according to a majority of counties involved in the payments.

The new system will provide reliable information on public service numbers, wages, and allowances, helping to avoid double payment of workers at the two levels of government.

Treasury made a commitment last year that all national and county government workers will be maintained on the unified system as part of reforms to improve transparency.

Ms Nyakango said that her office will not approve requisitions from county entities that will not have complied by October 1.

Transparency weaknesses have left gaps for some workers to get double pay at both counties and national governments because of the management of two payrolls.

The Salaries and Remuneration Commission said last year that a unified system will help track national and county government entities that pay salaries and other benefits outside the prescribed caps.