The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) Director of Finance, Cheptumo Ayabei, says it will be a prudent thing for teachers who receive erroneous payment to inform the Commission.
He urges teachers who get overpaid to leave the overpaid monies in the account and immediately inform their employer.
According to Ayabei getting an overpayment does not mean time to sit and celebrate because the consequences can be severe.
Salary overpayment also defined as undeserved pay says will be recovered from such teachers no matter how long it may take and maybe painful.
A salary overpayment usually involves serving employees including teachers and the secretariat or those who have exited service.
It is usually recovered on payroll or out of payroll. Overpayments on payroll occur due to delays in adjusting hardship and house allowance codes after transfers.
They are also brought about by absenteeism and desertion of duty, wrong salary points, irregular promotions, discipline issues and misdirection of pay.
On the other hand, salary overpayments outside payroll refer to claims against staff who have exited the service.
The process of recovery of these claims involves; identification, recording and issuing demand letters to the individual former teachers or the next of kin where the exit was occasioned by death.
Most significantly, the Commission identifies salary pay points for teachers as avenues through which recoveries can be reliably made.
These outside payroll overpayments are more difficult to recover.
Overpayments can also be redeemed through physical debt, the Director of Pensions and sanctions.
In some instances, recoveries may be deemed as write-offs.
The Commission has adopted various strategies to guard against the risk of overpayments.
For instance, recoveries on payroll are done on check off basis for staff on the payroll.
Where the amount recoverable is huge, the period for recoveries takes longer.
However, if the amount is small the recovery period takes a short time.
According to the Commission, there has been a huge reduction on recoveries due to spirited campaign by the Finance and Accounts Directorate to sensitize supervisors, field officers and heads of institution on policy on the management of salaries.
“The directorate remains relentless in its efforts to resolve all outstanding cases of overpayments. In the current Performance Contracting (PC) 2021-2022, the directorate has made a commitment to implement 100 per cent policy on the management of salary overpayments,” said Ayabei.
He says the directorate has cascaded the prevention measures to the County Directors by having them included in performance contracts.
It has also sensitized all TSC directors at the headquarters and in the counties on the issue.
In addition, the directorate is in the process of establishing an accurate database for outstanding salary overpayments for risk mitigation and is setting up mechanisms to operationalise the sanctions.
He urged all teachers and staff to familiarise themselves with the policy on the management of salary overpayments available on the TSC website.
Some of the unique features of the policy include: Ability to pinpoint an officer whose acts or omissions led to salary overpayment, and also incidents of underpayment which is rectified through salary arrears.