Mandera County processed KSh362.41 million in employee compensation through manual payrolls during the 2025/26 financial year, raising concerns about the controls used to manage public sector salaries.
The amount represented about 7% of the county’s total employee compensation costs, according to the Office of the Controller of Budget.
The report said the manual payroll included salaries for staff not yet onboarded into the Human Resource Information System, casual workers, security personnel allowances and pension-related payments.
It listed 520 staff whose salaries were processed outside the human resource system, with KSh177.59 million paid under that category.
Mandera county attributed the continued use of manual payrolls partly to delays in issuing personnel numbers to new employees and salary top-ups for security personnel.
The Controller of Budget warned that manual payroll processes can expose public funds to abuse and recommended stronger controls.
The report does not establish that the payments were fraudulent or that the affected workers were ghost employees.
Mandera County is yet to explain the verification measures used to process the payments, how many employees have since been integrated into the human resource system and what safeguards are in place to prevent irregular payments.
