Nakuru County public service board has work cut out  

The newly constituted Nakuru County Public Service Board has its work cut out.  

The board’s immediate challenge will be the employment of skilled manpower.    

Statistics by the Controller of Budget Office indicates that Nakuru spent Sh751.5 million which is less than 10 per cent of its planned annual development budget of Sh8 billion in the nine months (July 2018 – March 2019).

DEVELOPMENT FUNDS

This poor absorption of development funds was largely blamed on lack of skilled manpower.

The approval of the new board comes at a time when the county is grappling with a serious shortage of skilled workforce and a bloated non-skilled workforce.

The board inherits a poorly motivated workforce. Some of the staff have either been acting for a long time, while many have stagnated in one grade for years.

This has adversely affected their morale and slowed down development in the wards.

The approval of Ms Serah Mutare Mwangi, Mr Simon Korir Rabwet, Mr Paul Muthangya and Ms Mary Nasieku Yiapan by the assembly has ended the boardroom wars that was the hallmark of the past board.

Ms Joyce Njeri Ndegwa, who was plucked from Egerton University is the board’s secretary.

Governor Kinyanjui viewed the past board, which he sent home in January, as a stumbling block to his development agenda.

CORRUPTION

The board was accused of corruption including irregular employment and unfair promotions.  

Top in the new board’s agenda will be to weed out ghost workers in the county’s payroll.

The ballooning wage bill of Sh6 billion which is about 30 per cent of the total annual budget of Sh21 billion, is one of the hurdles Governor Kinyanjui is struggling to address.

The executive in charge of Public Service, Training and Devolution, Lawrence Mwania Mwangangi had promised to clean up the payroll in 90 days after his appointment.

The county has, not made public the number of ghost workers purged from its bloated payroll.

An audit report commissioned by Governor Kinyanjui last year revealed that the county government was losing nearly Sh30 million annually to ghost workers.

The report, whose recommendations are gathering dust on the shelves, revealed that more than 20 employees were not accounted for.

Governor Kinyanjui pledged to reign in the runaway corruption in the county soon after he was sworn in office.  

SH150 MILLION

The new board is coming at a time when the county has set aside Sh150 million to send off hundreds of staff who will retire in the current financial year.

The devolved unit is facing an acute shortage of skilled manpower in nearly all the 12 departments.  

The county has set aside at least Sh100 million in the current financial year to recruit agriculture extension officers, sub-county administrators, municipal managers, economists, youth instructors and about 10 engineers.

But the hardest hit is the critical Agriculture department with an ageing workforce. Molo sub-county has only three officers.  

Another critical department that is facing a serious shortage of staff is health which has been rocked by mass exodus of doctors and other health workers due to poor remuneration.

Gilgil Ward MCA Jane Wangui Ngugi recently told the assembly that 15 nurses at the Gigil Sub-County Hospital had retired and were yet to be replaced.  

he further said that some pre-primary classes had closed down due to lack of teachers.

“In Subukia sub-county about 75 per cent of the agriculture extension officers will be retiring at the end of this year and this will affect food security in the region,” said Subukia MCA Mary Wanjiru Waiganjo.