•The appraisals will be done after the board receives a headcount report done last year to eliminate ghost workers and clean the payroll.
•Illegally held positions will be re-advertised for deployment.
The newly sworn-in Kisumu Public Service Board will conduct fresh staff appraisals on receipt of a headcount report done last year to eliminate ghost workers and clean the payroll.
Residents have questioned why the report was not released and what its findings were.“We want to establish the gaps and the number (of staff) before we can start recruitment of various positions,” board chairman Charles Karan said.
He said all county government employees will be subjected to performance review to establish the nature of their work in the public service.
Illegally held positions will be re-advertised for deployment. “Let not this be politicised and I want to assure all the staff that nobody will be sent away but some will be reorganised in relation to their capabilities, qualifications, among others," he said.
Karan was speaking in Kisumu on Tuesday when he and other five board members took the oath of office in a ceremony presided over by Kisumu resident magistrate Beryl Omollo.
His colleagues are Jacinta Kapiyo, Stephen Orot, Edward Kochung, Nashon Aluoka, and Jane Oyare.
Karan assured residents that they will do their job as per the laws and regulations in place.
He asked the county to facilitate the board to do their job efficiently.
Governor Anyang’ Nyong’o said that the board members were recruited competitively and called for discipline and commitment among public servants. Lazy workers would not be tolerated, he said.
County secretary Olango Onudi said the governor could not have conducted any substantive recruitment without a board.
A total of 130 applicants had responded to the advertisement for the five positions while 18 wanted to be chairperson, Onudi said.
“A total of 30 people qualified and the governor had to choose the best six out of the number, “he said and urged the board members to take their work seriously and always consult the governor and his officers.
Early last month, the county assembly unanimously approved the six nominees picked by Nyong’o.
The names of the board nominees had been tabled in the assembly by Labour and Social Welfare committee chairperson Beatrice Odongo.
Odongo said her committee was concerned that representation of youth and People with Disability was lacking in the governor’s appointments.
Majority leader Kenneth Onyango said a delay in coming up with the board members had derailed operations in the county.
Kolwa East MCA Steve Owiti challenged the new board to maintain a high level of integrity and to learn from the mistakes of their predecessors.