Kitui County Public Service Board will audit the number of casuals on the county payroll.
This will also help weed out ghost workers just in case there are.
Board chairperson Florence Makindi told the county assembly committee on labour that since her team assumed office, it has been concerned about the high number of casuals.
Makindi, who was accompanied by CPSB secretary, Japheth Mbiti, was answering questions from the committee members under the chairmanship of nominated MCA Munyoki Mwinzi on Wednesday.
The audit will involve a headcount to establish each worker’s qualification and suitability for the assigned jobs.
The chairperson had been invited for a consultative meeting on the runaway county wage bill that stood at 37.8 per cent. She had been asked to shed light on how her team would manage the bloated workforce.
The meeting came on the heels of a letter from the county assembly clerk in mid-August directing the board to stop filling a high number of advertised vacancies given the spiralling wage bill.
In the letter signed by deputy clerk Lucy Waema on behalf of the clerk, she said the Controller of Budget had fingered Kitui for the high wage bill.
On Wednesday, Makindi said in three months her team will have finished the audit and a lot will have been uncovered. She said going forward casuals will be employed by the CPSB.
The CPSB boss said her team was of the view that it was wrong to employ casuals to collect revenue as it was difficult to hold such workers accountable should they decide to disappear with any collected cash.
She also said the board was seeking to hire permanent and pensionable revenue officers to seal possible funds leaks and the new staff would also help collect revenues at the county roll out the universal healthcare program sooner.
Makindi defended the decision by the board to hire more workers, including several chief officers, to head some departments, saying it would boost efficiency and services.
She further said that since 2019, the county did not have a board in place until when her team came in May this year and it was prudent to replace workers who had left through natural attrition, resignation and retirement.
Edited by Kiilu Damaris
