City Hall run by unskilled staff, says report

Nearly all employees of the Nairobi City Council are not qualified to do their jobs, according to a report released on Thursday.

The human resource audit says 92 per cent of the council’s 11,500 workers are either semi-skilled or totally unskilled.

And their salaries account for 70 per cent (Sh7 billion annually) of the council’s recurrent expenditure, warns the study by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

Ironically, this comes just a week before the council receives an ISO certification for what it calls customer satisfaction.

The two-year study found 7,410 employees did not have the basic skills to work in a devolved county government.

“There are opportunities for redeployment or transfer of excess staff to other counties. Transition can be phased out by way of natural attrition and retirement,” says the report.

The report warns the council, which becomes a county government next year, must lay off most of its staff to efficiently serve Nairobi residents.

The study estimates the city will require 7,716 skilled staff to perform optimally. This means the governor will have to employ about 6,000 professionals and sack almost 80 per cent of the current team

“The council will have a lean and efficient workforce which will be responsive to stakeholder needs,” said the report.

Despite the bloated workforce, the council does not have enough technical staff.

For instance, it has only four electrical engineers. Most of its employees comprise cleaners, secretaries, ticket givers, messengers, tea girls, market inspectors and askaris.

The report says the council must employ more engineers, firefighters, accountants and ICT experts

It warns that the bloated workforce has not only impaired service provision but also turned the council into a cash-cow for unscrupulous employees.

Ghost workers

The has also resulted in duplication of responsibilities. For example, the job descriptions for the City Engineer and City Planner are almost similar, yet clients sometimes have to go through both to complete a transaction.

The consultants want some departments scrapped and others merged to “reduce red-tape and enhance service delivery.”

Town Clerk Phillip Kisia declined to discuss the findings.

“This report will not be implemented overnight. There’s a procedure. For us, we have done our part and maybe we will just read and those who will come after us will implement it,” said Mr Kisia, who leaves office at the end of this month.

“The good news is 25 per cent of our staff is over 50. They will go home anyway and so there should be no course for alarm.”

Mr Kisia said he will consult widely as some of the recommendations affect directors of departments.

When the study started in 2010, PwC found the council had 4,000 ghost workers.

Others had forged employment letters, staff identity number and job cards.

On Thursday, Mr Kisia told journalists they had eliminated the ghost workers and all employees now use smart job identity cards.