Why The New payroll System For Civil Servants
The government of Kenya is working with the World Bank to develop a new payroll system for all civil servants.
According to the government, the unified civil servants Human Resource system will eventually phase out the structure employed currently.
Speaking during the 3rd National Wage Bill Conference organised by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC), Public Service Principal Secretary Amos Gathecha stated that once the system is in place, a Unified Payroll Number (UPN) will be allocated to all civil servants.
According to PS Amos Gathecha the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has adopted the system and would soon be extended to all government employees.
The new system will help the government manage employment data for all the civil servants in a consolidated system referred to as the HRIS-Kenya web-based system.
Through this system, all government workers including those in Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) will be registered with the government later issuing the new UPNs.
To emphasize on the new payroll system PS said the government will not allow any manual payrolls going forward.
According to Public Service data, the Unified Payroll Numbers (UPN) system generated 540,523 payroll numbers between January 2020 and March 2024
This includes; 381,742 numbers issued to teachers under TSC which is the highest allocation.
Why The New payroll System For Civil Servants
Further, the PS said the new system shall ensure accountability within the public service by eliminating risks of double and multiple salaries paid to civil servants.
PS further noted that there need to do an audit for the counties on monthly basis that would reveal the state of the public service.
All MDAs and counties will also be required to adhere to approved staff establishments while hiring as the data will be managed within one system.
