The Siaya government has gone flat out to rid its payroll of ghost workers.
The county has resorted to issuing cheques to all employees. The new measure was introduced by Governor Cornel Rasanga as part of efforts to ensure only genuine workers get their pay. Rasanga said the county will this month clean and restructure the human resource registry to tame the ballooning wage bill.
The ongoing exercise is being steered by the departmental accountants and chief officers. Workers have to present themselves in person to get their pay.
“To enhance efficiency and accountability in the Finance department, the Siaya government has adopted the cheque system in handling salaries and wages,” Rasanga said.
The new system requires all salaries to be remitted to individuals through cheques. Workers have their cheques ready for collection within two weeks of payment date. “The move is expected to enable, among other advantages, proper paper trail, and better security, as well as allow the county government control over financial flow,” Rasanga said.
He said each cheque creates a paper document that details who received the payment, the day the payment was made and the amount paid. Rasanga said only the named recipient can present a cheque for payment. The cheques also provide the county with payment controls.
Rasanga said several control measures exist in the accounts payable department to ensure cheques are written to the target recipients. The governor said the payroll system audit includes chief officers and account clerks verifying details of each staff against those captured on the payroll system.
“Workers are expected to present original copies of their identification documents to support the process.”
Governance and Administration executive Dismas Wakla expressed confidence that the exercise will enable the county government to lower the wage bill which currently ranges between 42 and 45 per cent.
“There is a need to examine our systems, adequately remunerate our staff and cut down on our wage bill through running an updated registry,” he said.
The exercise is also designed to provide checks and balances on the status of former employees who may have died, retired or, for whatever reason, quit.
(Edited by F'Orieny)
