Garissa public service board completes verification exercise

The Garissa county public service has successfully vetted over 700 county staff recently affected by the HR purge meant to clean the county payroll.

The audit carried out three months ago was intended to clean the county’s bloated workforce and regularize issues of irregular employment.

The county public service board chair Ebla Sahal while speaking to the press on Monday said that the verification exercise was completed successfully and the board will now compile a report.

She said the process that began on the 23rd of January will weed out illegally employed staff, identify redundant positions, ascertain illegal promotions and conduct certification verification.

She assured all affected persons of a fair audit process adding that those who meet the requisite equipment for their jobs will be reinstated.

She said the board rolled out the process under the directive of Governor Nathif Jama who tasked them and the county executive to ensure anyone affected by the purge received a fair process.

“I want to take this opportunity to urge members of the public not to harass county executives and other senior staff on employment issues since the exercise was solely the mandate of the county public service board."

Vice-chair Abdullahi Keynan said the team involved in the exercise was doing thorough scrutiny to ensure the process was successful.

On several occasions, Governor Jama has had to come out to defend his move to carry out a human resource audit saying that it was meant to bring back sanity to governance matters.

The findings that were made public by Governor Jama last month after a two months audit exercise was met with accusations from some leaders and activists who accused the governor of the arbitrary sacking of county employees.

The audit showed that the county government employed more than 130 top-level staff without a degree certificate, a two-month human resource audit report revealed.

It further showed that the county hired directors and their deputies who did not have the mandatory academic papers to head the dockets.

Also, 1oo people were hired as drivers yet there are only 12 vehicles in the county transport department.

During the press briefing, the governor said 3,500 people have been earning salaries both in the IPPD and in excel sheet payments for casual workers.