Public Service Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria has announced plans that will be rolled out by the government in the fight against ghost workers within the Public Service.
Kuria in a statement on February 27, 2024, admitted that the country is not doing well in and was losing a lot of money to ghost workers in the name of civil servants.
The CS however hinted at a new plan that his see the state axe fake civil servants from the pay roll in different ministries and state parastatals.
“We are not doing very well in chasing away ghosts. This country is full of ghosts. We are paying ghost civil servants, ghost teachers and spending capitation on ghost students.
“We are sending cash transfers to ghost elderly citizens,” lamented Kuria.
CS Kuria further noted that as the government accelerates its actions to weed out ghost workers, the Ministry of Public Service will embark on biometric registration for all government employees.
Kuria lists Reforms
According to Kuria, biometric registration of the over 900,000 public servants including county government workers paid by the taxpayer’s money will be implemented.
Furthermore, the CS announced a payroll audit is also underway as the government aims at addressing the issue affecting the public service.
In a January 2024 report by the Public Service Commission (PSC), about 20,000 ghost workers on the government payroll were unmasked.
Also Read: PSC Reveals Govt Offices with Highest Number of Fake Degrees
The report which covered the 2022/23 financial year flagged and highlighted a bloated public service. It also exposed fault lines in President William Ruto’s anti-graft war.
In addition, the report also revealed that Kenya’s public officers looted Ksh605 million in corrupt deals in government in the financial year ending June 2023.
It also emerged that 19,467 additional unauthorized staff were added to the government payroll in different government departments and agencies against the approved staffing levels.
Ghost workers
State House, the official residence of the president, and New Kenya Cooperative Creameries (KCC), a state-owned dairy processing company, were at the top of the list of public offices plagued by ghost workers.
Also Read: Ruto Pressured to Declare How Much His Govt Steals Daily
The report exposed the two of having had an excess of over 100 members each.
Also, 15 other organizations were listed as having more than 50 per cent of their recommended staff establishment.
On the other hand, ministries and state departments accounted for the highest number of authorized staff at 12, 535.
This was followed by state corporations at 4,558 and public universities at 2,287 as per the report.
The PSC report confirmed reports by the Controller of Budget (CoB) Margaret Nyakang’o on mismatch in the country’s expenditure.
Nyakang’o reported that only a paltry 30 per cent or less of budgetary allocations to both national and county governments is spent on development.
The remaining 70 per cent of budgetary allocations was however reported to be spent on paying salaries and recurrent expenditure.
Meanwhile, PSC Chairman Anthony Muchiri also revealed that the Ministry of Interior and Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) had the highest number of employees with fake certifications.
