The members Legislature (mps)are now demanding for a serious forensic audit on the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) payroll, after a rising expenditure which is likely to be from salary overpayment.
On Tuesday, the House on Public Accounts Committee (PAC) questioned the TSC CEO Nancy Macharia over an expenditure of Sh466 million ,sum of money which the Auditor General under the Financial Year 2021/2022 flagged off.
In response to this, Macharia said that the issue of overpayments had grown over the years as a result of an inefficient reporting system which she indicated has remained manual over years.
She further added that salary overpayment occurred as a result of the delay in stoppage of salary of employees upon death, those who have deserted duty,teacher resignation,teacher transfer of services, those who go for sick leave,those who face interdiction as well as absenteeism.
TSC reported that the in FY2020/2021,it spent Sh352 million on salaries out of which Sh114 resulted from overpayment of salaries.
Blame on TSC for failing to recover funds
According to the Auditor General madam Nancy Gathungu, the commission (TSC) had failed to demonstrate efforts to recover salary overpayments .
She suggested that this implies to a signal on unwillingness to recover the funds.
On the other hand, the members of Parliament raised concerns on why the state commission has failed in two subsequent years to address overpayments.
They questioned on whether TSC officials were colluding to steal from the public coffers using the above narrative.
According to member of Parliament Mbadi, there is a problem with TSC payroll system, and suggested it call for a forensic audit to understand it and invite for a review as well.
N addition, the Funyula MP Oundo Mudenyo also insisted on an in-depth review of the TSC payroll system .
This will help toiron out the systemic challenges that have led to the loss of public funds resulting to various strains.
Macharia responded to the MPs that the commission has developed an overpayment policy and online service to improve efficiency .
TSC added that the system will help to collect details on death,the resignation, cases of desertion of duty as well as absenteeism to facilitate recovery of salary overpayment challenge.