Counties audit staff for clean payrolls

What you need to know:

  • Homa Bay Governor Cyprian Awiti said they budgeted for 4,000 workers.

A section of counties have embarked on a staff audit to ascertain the exact number of workers in their payroll.

This came after concerns were raised over the rise in numbers of ghost workers taking up millions of shillings in monthly salaries.

So far, Homa Bay, Kisumu, Siaya, Nandi, Kisii, Nairobi and Kakamega counties have started the audit.

Kisumu County has 3,497 workers in its payroll, Homa Bay has 4,000, while Siaya budgeted for 1,900 employees.

Kisii Governor James Ongwae Firday told Saturday Nation that two months ago, he ordered the Public Service Board to carry out an audit of all workers inherited from the defunct municipal and county governments to expose ghost workers.

County leaders who spoke to Saturday Nation yesterday indicated that the major challenge was staff inherited from the defunct local authorities .

Kisumu Chief of Staff Kennedy Hongo yesterday said the county would conduct a human resource audit to verify the figure.

He said that the current wage bill was Sh193 million per month.

Most of the staff in the county were employees of the phased-out county and municipal councils .

“We are cleaning out list of workers inherited from Nyando and Muhoroni town councils, and also from Kisumu Municipality and the City Council of Kisumu,” said Dr Hongo.

Kakamega County has also started the audit; the exact number of staff in the county government’s payroll is yet to be known.

County director of communications Samuel Wetungu said the list was not complete therefore no figures could be posted on the number of staff.

Bomet Governor Isaac Ruto assured workers—including those from the national government—that the county would pay their salaries starting this month.

He, however, said that the national government was currently rationalising its staff, adding that at the end of the process slated to end in June, his government would still work with workers retained in the payroll.

4,000 workers

Homa Bay and Siaya also embarked on the audit before salaries of thousands of their workers for the month of January could be processed.

Homa Bay Governor Cyprian Awiti said they budgeted for 4,000 workers.

He said the county would only put the workers on a payroll once it confirms genuine workers, a process that will take about four days.

‘‘There are so many ghost workers who should be removed from payroll,’’ said the county executive of Finance, Mr Nicholas Koriko who spoke on behalf of Mr Awiti.

Siaya Governor Cornel Rasanga said they were verifying the payroll from the national government.

Mr Rasanga said the county was working on the list to ensure that the workers seconded to counties did not have their January salaries delayed.

‘‘We have Sh48 million per month for the 1,900 workers,’’ he said.

Nandi Women Representative Zipporah Kering, who is also a member of the Parliamentary Committee on Health, said it was certain that some posts would have to be scrapped especially in the health sector where cases of ghost workers thrived.

Separately, Former Ndaragua MP Jeremiah Kioni asked the government to come clear on the fate of former local authority workers who might not be absorbed by county governments.
He raised concerns that over 100,000 workers could be fired.