A newly released report has revealed how school going children are being used to fraudulently draw salaries from the government.
School children of senior civil servants, workers who are dead or retired are among persons being used to fleece the country by being placed in the payroll.
According to a report compiled by the Inter-Governmental Steering Committee for the Capacity Assessment and Rationalization of the Public Service Program ghost, 500 ghost workers are under 18 years of age - these paid 'employees' are suspected to be school going children of senior civil servants.
The report pointed out that the number of ghost workers is at least 4,674 with another 10,280 employee bearing suspicious employment records.
It was further revealed that the government loses approximately Sh2 billion annually to non-existent workers.
The chairperson of the Public Service Commission Professor Margaret Kobia on Sunday stated that forensic investigations were underway to identify the fraudsters in this scandal.
“Some 50 culprits have been identified and we have a team working on this. If we confirm these are the people behind the fraud and the so-called ghost workers, we shall institute disciplinary and legal action immediately,” Kobia said.
In another report prepared by the Inter-Governmental Steering Committee the government could spend Sh185 billion to retrench at least 450,000 civil servants. This report is however yet to be presented to the President Uhuru Kenyatta.
The President launched this program in July last year, to cut down on the country’s ballooning wage bill which is said to be at least Sh550 billion and weed out ghost workers.
