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Seal graft loopholes to efficiently fund future salary increments



The recent decision by the Supreme Court to back Industrial Court order and Court of Appeal’s ruling to award teachers a salary increment of 50-60 per cent was indeed a big win to all public teachers nationwide.

The National Treasury has since warned that the taxpayer will have to dig deep into his pockets to raise the Sh 17 billion required to effect teachers’ salary increment.
Just recently, the Auditor General, Edward Ouko raised the red flag over massive corruption in National and county governments. The Auditor in his report revealed that expenditures of up to Sh 67 billion were not backed up with proper documentation in counties and national government ministries.
PHOTO: Courtesy, Nation Media Group

This undeniably was not the first time that an Audit Report exposed graft in the government.
There have also been concerns about payment of ‘ghost workers’ and the government losing billions of shillings in procurement processes- the most recent being the National Youth Service (NYS) saga where reports emerged that at least Sh 826 million were illegally transferred to unknown bank accounts through procurement.

County officials have been reported to be spending lavishly in foreign trips, money which can be used to remunerate hard working employees such as teachers- who play a major role in nurturing talent and future generation leaders. Basically, teachers play a big role in children upbringing as the education system dictates that a child spends more time with the teacher in school than the parent.
The government should devise ways of appraising employees and motivate them- through monetary means, bearing in mind that the cost of living has gone up.

Therefore, to effect the Court’s directive to pay teachers a salary increment of 50-60 per cent, it will be prudent for the government to seal all loopholes of corruption to avoid leakage of taxpayers’ money into the wrong hands.
If our leaders walk the talk to fight graft, the common mwananchi will not have to pay more tax to finance salary increment of teachers or government employees.

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