County urged to fire 2,300 of its workers

The county has been asked to reduce its workforce from 4,350 to 2,000 to bring down the huge annual wage bill of Sh4 billion.

Last year, the county inherited 2,550 workers from the Mombasa Municipal Council but the number has to date risen to 4,350.

By hiring more workers, the county has pushed the wage bill from Sh1.9 billion to Sh4 billion, an amount way above its total annual revenue collection of Sh2.5 billion.

The county has to depend on the Sh4.3 billion channelled by the National Treasury to fill the salary payment shortfall.

WAGE BURDEN

In a fiscal strategy paper for the year 2014/2015, the county proposes to allocate Sh7 billion for recurrent expenditure from a total budget of Sh12.2 billion. On Tuesday, Kenya Community Support Centre director Phyllis Muema asked the county chiefs to downsize its staff from 4,350 to 2,000 to help reduce the wage bill burden.

She could not understand why the county was paying a wages of Sh4 billion against a revenue collection of Sh2.5 billion.

“Does it really make sense for an employer to pay his workers Sh4 billion yet he makes only Sh2.5 billion from the business?” she asked.

“We demand the reduction of the workforce as it is weighing heavily on the county, depriving residents of funds for development.”

Ms Muema suggested that the county should spend 45 per cent of its budget on recurrent expenditure, with the remaining 55 per cent going to development projects.

She proposed that the county should cut its proposed recurrent expenditure of Sh7 billion since it was more than 50 per cent of the total budget of Sh12.2 billion.

At the same time, Ms Muema called on the county chiefs to sack unqualified workers. She said a recent report by Ernst & Young showed that most of the county workers inherited from the defunct council had primary school education.
“It is time the county bosses sacked the majority of workers, who are primary school leavers,” she said.