Homa Bay County Public Service Board has suspended 700 employees citing irregularities after an audit on the devolved unit’s payroll.
The board stated that 314 workers could not be found in the county payroll despite their claims of reporting to work.
It identified an additional 386 workers listed in the county payroll without any allocated salary.
In a letter addressed to the County Secretary Benard Muok who is also the head of Public Service and of all chief officers in the county, Aloo directed that all affected workers be removed from the county public service as soon as possible.
“The County Public Service Board has resolved that all staff who have been working and not drawing salary from the county government be disengaged from the county public service with immediate effect.
“Any such staff should be advised to seek clearance from the Public Service Board on the authenticity of their engagement with the county government before being allowed to report back to their stations,” the letter read.
In response to the directive, several chief officers have begun implementing the instructions of the board.
Furthermore, the chief officer for health Kevin Osuri wrote to all the affected staff in his department instructing them to obtain clearance from the board before returning to work.
Also Read: Homa Bay County Govt Conducts Staff Audit to Fish out Ghost Workers
This directive follows the decision of the public service board to implement recommendations outlined in an audit report.
Homa Bay Payroll Audit
The board reached the decision to suspend the employees following an audit conducted by Price Waterhouse Coopers aimed at verifying the authenticity of the workers’ contracts.
Homa Bay Governor Gladys Wanga, who hired the firm to fish out ghost workers, pledged to initiate an administrative and legal process to implement the report’s recommendations.
“Recommendations of the audit report will be done to establish an efficient and effective public service. The path may be longer, but we believe in the rule of law and respect for natural justice,” Wanga said.
Additionally, she said that a human resource management system for the board will be established to serve the people of Homabay.
The initiative aims at eliminating ghost workers, tackle the issue of the high wage bill, and reduce unnecessary expenses for the county government.
Ghost Workers in Government
However, the issue of ghost workers cuts across the 47 devolved units.
In February 2023, a staff audit at Kisii County revealed that more than 1000 employees on payroll were ghost workers. Governor Simba Arati sanctioned the exercise, which was conducted by the Institute of Human Resource Management.
In particular, 1,314 employees could not be accounted for after the failed to show up for headcount, which was part of the forensic audit.
“Out of the 5,600 “workforce”, 1,314 are ghost workers who failed to turn up for the two-month headcount,” Governor Arati said after receiving the report.
In January 2024, a report by the Public Service Commission revealed that nearly 20,000 employees on the government’s payroll were ghost workers.
Also Read: Kuria Reveals How Govt Will Clean Payroll & Weed Out Ghost Workers
Similarly, PSC revealed that at 2,000 civil servants have fake academic papers. PSC Chairperson Amb. Anthony Muchiri noted that the Commission undertook authentication exercise, whose initial findings showed that over 2,000 public officers secured jobs, promotions and re-designations using fake papers.
“According to the reports received by the Commission, there are substantial cases of forged academic and professional certificates used for the award of appointments, promotions or re-designation in the public service,” said Amb. Muchiri.
Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) chair David Oginde said his team would work with the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) to smoke out public servants with fake papers.
“EACC will work closely with DCI and PSC to ensure we get rid of all fake certificates in the public service, which have dented the image and effectiveness of our public service,” said Dr. Oginde.
