Elgeyo Marakwet MCAs have accused Governor Alex Tolgos of employing excess staff, causing a financial crisis in the county.
The MCAs said Tolgos was to blame for financial problems affecting the county because his administration hired more than 2,500 workers, most of whom had no specific roles.
“Tolgos and his county executives knew very well they were driving the county into problems because they continued to hire staff who are not required and are part of the many ghost workers we have,” said Deputy Speaker Christopher Chemosong, also MCA for Arror ward.
Tolgos recently declared a budget crisis in the county after differing with MCAs over his demand to have the county assembly cut down its own Sh566 million allocation in order to plug Sh200 million budget deficit.
However, Chemosong claimed that the Sh200 million financial deficit the county faces was caused by the governor and his executives through the alleged hiring of their relatives.
“They have continued to hire and they knew very well that by 2019 we will have a crisis. Let the governor and his team deal with the self-inflicted problems they have in terms of financial shortages because we cannot finance payment of ghost workers,” said Chemosong.
He was speaking in Iten town together with assembly Speaker Kiplagat Sabulei. Chemosong said: “If you ask those hired, they do not even know their work and they were hired just because they are relatives to the county bosses.”
Tolgos denied the claims by the MCAs, whom he accuses of being selfish and refusing to prioritise interests of residents of the county.
The ward reps have twice refused to pass the county budget in which the governor wants the assembly to reduce its allocation.
Governor Tolgos has now invited the Senate to help mediate the crisis, which he says will cause all operations to stall. Area Senator Kipchumba Murkomen is yet to comment on the matter but has been consulting both the governor and the MCAs.
Sabulei also accused the county boss of failing to absorb Sh1 billion from last year’s budget while demanding more money. He accuses the governor of trying to frustrate the assembly through financial cuts because it had stood firm in its role of oversight.
