Kisii County government has put on hold the payment of salaries to 740 workers who failed to turn up during a headcount exercise
According to Kisii County, the payments were suspended because the affected employees did not turn up to be counted when the devolved unit was doing an audit.
The exercise led by Governor Simba Arati was meant to weed out ghost workers from the staff register which the government argues gobbles billions in salaries and allowances.
A section of the affected staff has complained that they were unfairly targeted since they went for the headcount and reported to their workstations.
A total of 397 staff in the Health Department have been affected including consultants, medical doctors, clinical Officers, and other non-medical staff.
Some 78 staff in the Department of Education, 55 from the Agriculture Department, 58 from Administration, and 10 from the Executive among others will also not receive payment for their October salaries.
Last year EACC launched an investigation into alleged insurance fraud and staff numbers surge at the Kisii County government after Governor Simba Arati alleged that there were ghost workers at the county government.
The county government in the investigations revealed that the county had 82 vehicles yet there were some 256 drivers on the payroll, something raised suspicion over mismanagement in the county.
The governor also noted that he would spend some Ksh10 million on the verification of academic certificates for all of his staff.
Arati said the exercise would be conducted for the 5,900 county employees at half the average rates charged by the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC).
The governor said some of the staff had presented fake documents for their employment in the county.
