Cabinet approves sweeping payroll reforms after audit exposes HRIS failures

The Cabinet approved far-reaching payroll reforms aimed at sealing long-standing integrity gaps in government payroll management and ensuring all statutory deductions are uniformly applied at source across public institutions.

The decision follows a special audit of the 2024/2025 financial year, which revealed serious governance, integrity and cybersecurity failures within the Government Human Resource Information System–Kenya (HRIS-K).

According to the audit findings presented to Cabinet, widespread payroll anomalies were detected involving identity records, tax compliance and bank account details. These challenges were exacerbated by weak system integration and the failure of nearly 300 State Corporations to migrate to the HRIS-K platform.

The audit raised particular concern over system access controls, revealing that 720 system editors had altered more than 4.7 million payroll records without proper audit trails. In some cases, staff were found to have edited their own records.

The system was also found to lack basic cybersecurity safeguards.

Further, the audit identified financial irregularities linked to unauthorised payments and excessive salary arrears. Weak disaster-recovery mechanisms and expired ICT licences were flagged as major risks exposing public funds to loss.

Cabinet was briefed on immediate stabilisation measures already undertaken and approved a firm reform roadmap to address the identified weaknesses.

Key among the directives is mandatory security certification of HRIS-K by March 11, 2026, and the deployment of forensic analytics to guide disciplinary and legal action where wrongdoing is established.

The reforms also include a governance reset of HRIS-K, full integration of a statutory deductions platform, and a directive that all statutory deductions must be effected strictly at source across all public entities.

To ensure effective implementation, a meeting bringing together Principal Secretaries, accounting officers and heads of State Corporations will be convened to oversee the reform process.

Accounting officers have been directed to submit verified payroll data, fully cooperate with ongoing audits, and take personal responsibility for any irregularities identified under their watch.

Additionally, the Cabinet approved the establishment of Payroll Audit Units and urgent ICT upgrades to strengthen internal controls, enhance transparency and safeguard public resources.