About 700 ghost workers in the payroll of Nyamira county government should be removed to save money for development, Governor John Nyagarama has been told.
Magombo MCA Richard Onyinkwa said on Monday that stopping the workers' salaries would not help since they will still be on the payroll.
Onyinkwa said the county government has not done much development because funds are committed to salaries.
“Whoever was employed in a way that did not follow the right procedure should be considered a ghost worker and be sacked. It is so shameful that as a county we have such big numbers of workers who are being paid. Let the county’s top leadership take the necessary action of sending them home,” Onyinkwa said.
The county government recently conducted a headcount of all the county employees but the report is yet to be released.
Nyamira county government has 4,000 workers but some are ghost workers while others, among them 31 individuals, were established to have forged academic papers to enable them secure jobs.
The human skills audit and payroll clean-up was conducted by the Institute of Human Resource Management. Nyagarama ordered the clean-up of the payroll, saying all workers who were employed illegally should be sent home.
The county has employees who were illegally recruited with letters backdated to 2016. Many others do not report to work but are paid salaries.
The county government received a report from the Kenya National Examinations council indicating that 31 officers used forged certificates to acquire employment with the county government.
