Audit unearths Sh466m Excess Teachers’ Pay
As the organization struggles with a teacher shortage, the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has been called out for overpaying a portion of its workforce.
The most recent public audit, which covers the period through June 2021, indicates that the erroneous payments may have drained about Ksh. 3 billion and given teachers irrecoverable salary advances.
The audit also finds that the commission did not pay about Ksh. 2 billion in taxes that were withheld from employees.
In the audit, Auditor General Nancy Gathungu noted that some of the missing money may have been paid to “ghost teachers” between the years 1988 and 2000, when teachers were being paid in cash rather than through banks.
According to reports, TSC advanced about Ksh. 10.5 million in salary advances, some of which were undocumented and the remainder of which were never recovered.
“Furthermore, a sum of Ksh. 4,264,665 in relation to 145 employees remained static over the previous 12 months. The non-recovery of the pay increases was not justified by management, Ms. Gathungu wrote.
Ironically, several TSC employees whose salary advances were not being reimbursed continued to get salary advances, raising concerns about a potential conspiracy to misappropriate commission funds.
Additionally, TSC was unable to explain how it overpaid staff by Ksh. 352 million, some of which it had been unable to recoup for years.
Under questionable circumstances, certain teachers received overpayments of Ksh. 33 million; according to the Auditor General, these funds may never be recouped.
“Review of the detailed analysis of the payroll provided for the financial year 2020/2021 revealed that thirty-two teachers had an outstanding’salary overpayment’ balance amounting to Sh33,780,614,” Gathungu stated.
“However, the repayment time for recovering the unpaid balances is longer than the respective instructors’ retirement age. Therefore, it is questionable whether the balance can be recovered.
One teacher received a Ksh.4.8 million overpayment, which was being repaid at a rate of Ksh9.056. If the instructor had successfully finished their probationary period prior to receiving such an advance, it would take 44 years to recoup from this, which is a very impossible time to remain in service.
While most government organizations typically require KRA tax compliance before hiring staff, more than 5000 TSC staff members are ineligible because they failed to remit Ksh. 2.2 billion in taxes to the KRA.
To try and close the teaching personnel shortfall at TSC, which has grown to over 100,000 and is anticipated to expand as the government continues to implement the Competency Based Curriculum, or CBC, about Ksh. 2.5 billion was allotted.
Audit unearths Sh466m Excess Teachers’ Pay
