- Mlughu said county payroll still contained names of some staffers who are deceased and some who had already retired.
- The committee report has exposed lack of a clean payroll data and lack of vital information.
Image: SOLOMON MUINGI
The Taita Taveta County Assembly has adopted a report recommending the county executive to suspend all recruitment of new workers for 90 days to curb the ballooning wage bill.
The resolution passed on Tuesday also compels Governor Andrew Mwadime's administration to undertake staff rationalisation to reduce the wage bill.
The report by the assembly's committee on administration is seeking to control excessive hiring by the devolved unit.
The committee’s chairperson Dorcus Mlughu said the report was timely and will ensure the county undertakes rationalisation of staff including conducting a comprehensive headcount.
The headcount is among the recommendations meant to weed out ghost workers allegedly siphoning county funds from the public coffers.
“We recommend re-designation of staff to key departments that are under-staffed, redefining job descriptions for specialist officers in senior positions and redistributing teachers to areas that face shortage to cap the growing wage bill,” Mlughu said while moving the motion of adoption of the report.
The Rong’e MCA further revealed that data provided separately by the executive and the County Public Service Board laid bare the discrepancies in the county staffing numbers.
Consequently, Mlughu said, the county’s wage bill is on an alarming upward trajectory, rising from Sh1.7 billion in the Financial Year 2016/2017 to Sh2.9 billion in the Financial Year 2022/2023.
She said the wage bill surpasses the provisions of the Public Finance Management (County Governments) Regulations, 2015, which provide that the county wage bill should not exceed 35 per cent of the county government’s total revenue.
“If this hiring haste is not controlled, the county will have a lot of staffers but will lack funds for development due to the escalating wage bill. I am worried that we will lose our county,” Mlughu said.
The MCA said the county payroll still contained names of some staffers who are deceased and some who had already retired.
She said Mwadime’s administration should swiftly establish the actual number of county employees and put in place clear control measures to restrain altering of county payroll.
Mlughu further recommended the county undertakes immediate recruitment of a substantive secretary to the CPSB. The current secretary has been acting for over six months, which is in contravention of the County Governments Act.
The committee report, she said, revealed that some 292 support staff were hired by the executive without provision in the staff establishment, pointing to over employment in non-priority areas.
It also pointed out a shortage of 156 ECDE teachers and 363 VTCs instructors.
“The committee report has exposed lack of a clean payroll data by the county and lack of vital information in the departmental records on staff including their designations, as noted in the water department which has 105 staff in job group C, with no particular designation,” the MCA said.
Deputy Speaker Anselm Mwadime noted that the fast-increasing wage bills has become a thorny issue in devolved units and poses a threat to devolution.
“It is true that we promised our people that we will create employment opportunities. We will however have to take a break from recruitment in the county to look into the issues surrounding irregular employment and the escalating wage bill,” Mwadime said.
He said the county has lower cadre staffers including cleaners, clerical officers and drivers, in excess while there’s a glaring shortage of professionals and technical persons.