The National Government Affirmative Action Fund (NGAAF) used an intern to recruit district coordinators to deploy across the country, an audit has revealed, exposing gaps in human resources management at the agency set up to help Kenya reduce poverty and inequality.
The intern was part of the interview and selection committee that met 235 candidates and hired 45 of them as district coordinators, although the process was marred by irregularities that led to the appointment of undeserving people at the expense of qualified professionals, the audit revealed.
“A review of the interview scorecards revealed that the interview panel included an HR intern. The intern was not appointed as a member of the interview and selection panel but participated in the interview process as a panel member, obtained grades and signed the interview result sheets,” Auditor General Nancy Gatongo reveals in Report on the NGAAF for the year ending June 2023.
Ms Gatongo points out that the NGAAF could not explain why the intern was involved in interviewing candidates for senior positions, nor could it prove that the members of the shortlisting and selection committees had declared that they had no conflict of interest in the recruitment process.
“In the absence of advertising, the integrity of the process may have been compromised,” she says.
Established in 2015 as one of the Government's Vision 2030 initiatives, NGAAF is mandated to address the plight of vulnerable groups by reducing poverty and inequality through improving access to financial facilities for the socio-economic empowerment of women, youth, persons with disabilities and vulnerable children. and the elderly in the country.
However, the Auditor-General notes that the Fund still operates without a human resources plan or a Human Resources Management Advisory Committee, which is supposed to manage its recruitment processes, form interview panels and appoint its representatives to the interview team.
“As a result, the hiring process was in violation of NGAAF policy,” he said, referring to the appointment of 45 district coordinators.
The report also criticized the process for failing to employ people with disabilities, even though some of the 27 people who applied for the jobs were qualified.
In Tana River District, the audit noted that the person appointed as district coordinator came in second in the hiring process, but in an anomaly, his score somehow rose from 47.8 to 60.3. A similar situation was observed in Homa Bay District.
“If this anomaly had not occurred, the second-placed candidate who scored 56.6 (in Tana River) would have been the highest-ranked candidate and would therefore have been appointed instead of the person chosen by the selection committee.”
“Records indicate that the successful candidate for Makueni County was rejected in writing by the County Pastor and indicated her preferred candidate placed second and was later appointed as County Coordinator.
“This is contrary to the provisions of the Human Resources Policies and Procedures Manual, which stipulates that employees are appointed on the basis of merit after the recruitment process and not on the basis of personal preference,” the review added.