Public Service Cabinet Secretary Geoffrey Ruku has announced that the government will introduce a new payment system for all civil servants as a way of fighting the menace of ghost workers.
Ruku, in an interview with a radio station on Monday, July 28, said the government is rolling out a new app to pay all civil servants.
According to the CS, the government has already implemented a new payment system; however, the app will reinforce it to ensure greater efficiency.
“So far, all the workers are being paid using the new system, which is showing us that you are a government worker, and you are in the office. Before, there were so many ghost workers, because you would find that someone is on the payroll and yet they don’t go to the office,” Ruku said.
“Now we are going to sit down and ensure that in that payroll system we are doing some modifications whereby all government workers will be required to download another app, which will now be used to pay the workers and track whether you have been in the office or not.”
CS Ruku Announces Govt Plan to Introduce New Payroll App for Civil Servants
The CS mentioned that the ministry is working with a local telecommunications company to develop the mobile app, which every government worker will be required to install on their phone.
Ruku added that the app will indicate whether an employee has reported to work, when they leave, and the reason for their absence, if any.
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Public Service Cabinet Secretary Geoffrey Ruku explained that the term ‘ghost worker’ goes beyond absentee employees.
“A ghost worker is not just someone who receives a salary without reporting to the office. According to me, a ghost worker is anyone employed by the government who reports to work late or shows up and then leaves to attend to personal business,” he said.
Civil Servants to Sign Daily Attendance Registers
This comes nearly a week after the CS announced that civil servants will soon be required to sign daily attendance registers as the government tightens the monitoring of punctuality and attendance in public offices.
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Speaking during an impromptu inspection at the Nyeri Regional Headquarters, CS Geoffrey Ruku said the registers will form part of strict reforms targeting absenteeism and poor work ethic in public offices.
“Going forward, we want to engage all supervisors across all levels of administration and introduce an attendance register to ensure every employee has a clearly defined schedule of duties,” Ruku said.
In April 2024, the government developed a Human Resource Information System to manage civil servants.
The system, created with assistance from the World Bank, includes a payroll module designed to handle salary payments for civil servants.
The Kenya Human Resource Information System (KHRIS) is a web-based platform developed to manage human resource functions in the public sector, including payroll administration.
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