Governor Arati vows action as he moves to reorganize staff
A staggering 1314 Kisii County staff failed to turn up for a head count heightening suspicions of could- be growing challenge of ghost workers in most counties in the country.
In Kisii, the said staff had been gobbling up millions of the tax payer’s cash.
The discovery of ghost staff was cited Wednesday in a report by the Institute of Human Resource Management presented to Kisii Governor Simba Arati. .
Only 5,696 turned up during the head count, a few others sent suspicious documents to represent them .
The audit was commissioned by the Governor in November 2022 with view to identifying gaps in the service delivery by staff.
On Wednesday, the firm Executive Director, Quresh Ahmed Abdullahi said the devolved unit could be losing in the upward of more than 600 million to irregular payments to ghost staff.
The payment to the staff, said Arati, adds to the pain of the ballooning wage bill.
The county may had further lost a Sh 45 m to irregular promotions in the 2019/2022 fiscal year., the report added.
The report recommends the institution of disciplinary measures against officers that aided in the irregular recruitments.
The officers further face possible surcharging.
“ We recommend that the workers be surcharged and those who approved the promotions to be disciplined” said the report in part.
Between 2013/2021, 46 employees retired and one died but their names were never deleted from the payroll.
There were a further an illegal disability staff, many with fake papers.
A further 16 of the 44 directors were said to had discipline issues.
The firm said they had verified the certificates through Kenya national examination Council ( KNEC) but asked the governor to follow up for appropriate action..
The Institute had received a letter of commitment to focus on compliances related to human resource management and ensure that policies are monitored.
They were to further determine the suitability of all job holders, skills and experience.
They were to also establish staff who were not captured during the exercise and staff qualifications.
Between June and October last year through allowances the County lost Sh 47.8 million.
Arati said he will take action at appropriate time.
