There are 200 unaccounted for workers on the Kakamega county payroll, Governor Wycliffe Oparanya has said.
Oparanya said they were investigating if the workers were transferred to the national government but have continued to draw salaries from the county.
He spoke yesterday at his chambers in Kakamega when he met county executives and subcounty administrators
“We have been cleaning the payroll and carried out a headcount for county staff early this year. We found that there were 200 staff receiving pay but do not exist,” he said.
A source told the Star that the headcount also found that over 100 people had presented fake degree certificates for employment by the county government.
Last week, Oparanya hinted at a possible reshuffle of his executive citing inefficiency of some current staff.
“It’s better when you have nothing to do to ask for what will make you productive,” he said.
Yesterday, Oparanya said that the county Public Service Board inaugurated a fortnight ago will review government structures to ensure that is responsive to the county’s needs.
“The new structures will be ready in the next two weeks. I am also in the process of reorganising my executive and I will be announcing the outcome soon,” he said.
On December 12 last year, Oparanya said that his government woul carry out a headcount of all workers and verify their academic papers.
“Thereafter a major reorganisation of the county government will follow to ensure efficient service delivery to the people,” he said.
The governor had put staff with fake papers in his government on notice.
Oparanya said that anyone in his administration including county executives found to have presented fake academic papers will be sacked, prosecuted and salaries they earned recovered.
Yesterday, Oparanya announced that the county will on Thursday host 26 foreign ambassadors to benchmark on devolution.
“They have chosen Kakamega county for benchmarking and we shall be also talking to them about the Lake Region Economic Block matters,” he said.
He said that he was not leaving the chairmanship of the LREB as reported in a section of the media.
“I am going nowhere from the bloc especially after the death of my vice-chair Bomet Governor Joyce Laboso,” he said.
(edited by O. Owino)
