An audit by the office of the Auditor General has exposed how Kenya Power employees used forged payslips to take loans. The audit report found out that 384 employees had faked their paystubs for the purpose of acquiring loans from unsuspecting lenders. These workers had then obtained human resource letters confirming their employment at power utility firm.
“An internal investigation during the year on alleged use of forged documents by employees to obtain loans from financial institutions revealed that 384 employees acquired loans using forged payslips and Human Resource approval letters,” the report on Kenya Power’s 2024/25 financial year by the Auditor General Nancy Gathungu stated.
At the same time, the report found out that 361 employees had payslips with more than two third deductions for the purposes of loan installments. This was in breach of Section 19 of the Employment Act of 2007 which prohibits employers from deducting more than two-thirds of an employee’s salary.
“361 employees were in breach of statutory one-third basic salary rule. The practice highlights weaknesses in the company’s payroll and human resource approval processes, which may have facilitated deductions beyond the statutory thresholds,” Ms Gathungu said in the report.
According to the report, with these employees earning less than one-third of their pay, they moved to exploit weaknesses in Kenya Power’s systems to generate fake payslips and human resource approval letters.
This expose follows another that found out that in the financial year that ended in June 2024, Kenya Power employees had been colluding with guards stationed at off-grid power stations and fuel transporters, leading to the theft of 1.16 million litres of fuel.
This fuel was stolen through manipulation of records of fuel deliveries and diversion of supplies in an elaborate scheme that was orchestrated over a period of more than two years.
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