Roba wants EACC to charge ghost workers and recover pay

Mandera Governor Ali Roba wants the anti-graft agency to investigate and prosecute more than 100 ghost workers unearthed in the county.

Mr Roba, who also heads the Frontier Counties Development Corporation, said files of the workers who were illegally drawing salaries would be forwarded to the anti-graft agency to recover the money.

“Some of these employees were reported to have been on the payroll while comfortably running their private businesses,” he said.

TASK FORCE

The staff were unearthed following a report of Efficiency Monitoring Task Force on Human Resource and Service Delivery presented earlier this week after two months’ work.

“The main objective of the task force was to ascertain the extent of Service delivery efficiency and human resource capacity in the county.

Additionally, the task force report was to provide recommendation for a comprehensive and coordinated approach on management of Mandera County workforce to successfully perform the devolved functions,” he said.

“We deliberately embarked on a raft of measures geared towards enhancing service delivery, increasing public confidence, cleansing the payroll, enhancing staff discipline, close monitoring of staff punctuality and work discipline among others.”

Other measures taken by the devolved unit to ensure service delivery were transfers and stoppage of salaries for absentee workers.

The taskforce report established the total number of staff and payroll challenges among other existing problems. It also established the number of staff in the county categorized by department, designation, sub-counties, home county, academic qualifications and ethnic composition. 

Mr Roba said the removal of the 100 ghost workers from the payroll has saved the county Sh26 million in December alone and would result to a total of Sh312 million saving annually.

Hailing the taskforce for “a job well done,” Mr Roba said “the radical re-design and process re-engineering has led to results that the government and the residents are equally proud of.”

The Roba administration has also sacked 12 senior officials while a similar number are on suspension as it put measures to enhance service delivery.

Those shown the door or facing disciplinary action include chief officers and their deputies, directors and their deputies, Governor Ali Roba said, adding that the move had improved service delivery.

“Under a new management, the healthcare sector is now efficiently running for 24 hours with the staffs reporting and remaining at their work stations for the whole duty day (shift). Proper work dress code has been adhered to by all staff. The town sanitation has also greatly improved since then,” he said.

In an interview with the Nation, Mr Roba said: “Half of the 24 officials facing disciplinary action have been sacked while the remaining ones are on edge.”

“The public confidence has now increased remarkably with thousands applauding our efforts in cracking the whip,” he said.

Mr Roba who is serving his second term as governor after being re-elected on a Jubilee Party ticket said his administration “is coming back with renewed zeal to leave an indelible mark of service delivery to the population of Mandera.”

“I will only be guided by the fear of The Almighty Allah, the guidance of the laws of Kenya and commitment to service delivery to the population of Mandera,” Mr Roba said.