The National Industrial Training Authority (Nita) is on the spot over how it spent Sh670 million employers paid as training levy.
Auditor General Nancy Gathungu says the millions of shillings recorded in the training levy receipt vouchers provided for audit were not posted in the ledger and financial statements.
“Consequently, the accuracy and completeness of the training levy balance of Sh670,140,000 could not be confirmed,” Ms Gathungu says in the latest audit of Nita books for the year to June 2021.
Nita is a State corporation that conducts industrial training by assessing and collecting industrial training levies and fees and developing industrial training curricula among other functions.
Parliament is yet to amend the Industrial Training Act, 2012 to compel employers to double the training levy they remit to Nita.
In 2019, Parliament attempted to change the 12-year-old law to require all employers to pay a training levy of Sh100 every month per employee. Currently, employers pay Sh50.
The Industrial Training (Amendment) Bill, 2019 which was sponsored by former Kiambu Town MP Jude Njomo to review the Industrial Training Act, 2007 lapsed in June when the five-year term of the 12th Parliament ended.
The Bill says employers should remit the levy to the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) which will be responsible for the assessment and collection of these levies.
“An employer shall pay the training levy to the Commissioner-General at the time when an employee’s salary is payable and shall be remitted to the Commissioner-General not later than the fifth day of the month following the month in which the levy becomes due,” the Bill states.
Stephen Ogenga, the Nita director general, said Nita is responsible for assessing and collecting industrial levies which every employer remits to cater for skills advancement.
Nita said the system was rolled out in 2020 and the strategy will go a long way in ensuring there is continuous skills enhancement for employees/workers in the industry.
The authority said it collaborated with various county governments to enhance the skills of more than 1,000 youth across the country.
