President William Ruto (Centre) after meeting members of Council of Governors in Nairobi on Monday, April 17, 2023.
Photo/Council of Governors
A panel of experts and County bosses on Tuesday, April 18, shared intrinsic details of how organised syndicates plan and execute ghost workers scandals.
Barely a month into the office, a number of County Governors declared their interest in auditing previous administrations' financial expenditures.
Audit of workers became a priority when it emerged that a number of retired governors had been stocking hundreds of ghost staff in the counties.
Appearing on Citizen TV, Nyeri Governor Mutahi Kahiga revealed two schemes that ghost workers syndicates employ oftentimes.
Nyeri Governor Mutahi Kahiga (left) with Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru (right) in Nyeri County at a consultative forum dealing with the alcohol and substance abuse menace in Central Kenya on April 14, 2023.
Photo/PCS
According to Kahiga, the plan is normally hatched by a few individuals in the public service department, sometimes, with the blessing of top bosses, including the governors.
"The theft takes place at two levels. The first instance is where those preparing payroll may deliberately include non-working staff in the accounting plan for the county workers.
Previous reports had demonstrated that County Public Service Boards (CPSB) were recruiting non-existent employees without evidence of accompanying requests and affirmation of the availability of funds for Personnel Emoluments from the relevant Chief Officers.
It was also observed that officers across different cadres were appointed into positions without meeting the minimum requirements as per the career progression guidelines and advertisement to declare the vacancies.
However, Governor Kahiga revealed that there are instances when ghost workers are entered within counties as a result of omission by the people who should be cleaning the registers.
The Nyeri county chief noted that there were cases where officers were appointed yet they were not in the shortlist but appeared for interviews.
"There is also an oversight that normally happens when staff at the Human Resources department fail to do their job of thoroughly cleaning the register.
After the 2022 General Election, Governors Gladys Wanga (Homa Bay Governor), Julius Malombe (Kitui), Wavinya Ndeti (Machakos) and Simba Arati (Kisii) moved to clean workers' register and to digitalise the Human Resource department.
In Kisii, it emerged that the previous administration had been paying some 1,314 ghost workers who did not serve the county government.
In a workforce 5,600 staff, Kisii County was all the while taking part in illegality when it used to pay ghost workers, but it later turned out the money meant for fake workers was simply going into the pockets of individuals.
In Kitui, a staff audit commissioned by Kitui Governor Dr Julius Malombe revealed that the County had been paying some 935 ghost workers.
Kitui County Human Resource and Staff Rationalisation Committee conducted a physical headcount of all the County staff, but 935 employees did not show up for the employment validation process.
Governor Malombe hence gave them a two months period within which to present themselves before the committee but they never did.
Kisii Governor Simba Arati addressing residents on Wednesday, April 12, 2023.
Photo/Simba Arati
