Laikpia county secretary Karanja Njora is expected to flush out 99 names of suspected ghost workers from the payroll. They are said to consume Sh48 million a year.
This is after an audit by the county Public Service Board indicated that the workers cannot be physically accounted for.
The board presented the staff audit to Governor Ndiritu Muriithi on Monday evening.
It showed that 99 workers out of 3,179 workers from 32 of the country’s ethnic communities failed to show up for the audit between June 24 and August 7 last year. It was conducted at Nanyuki, Rumuruti, Nyahururu and Doldol towns.
Board chairperson Mumbi Mwago said they forwarded the list of ghost workers to of Sh190.8 million.
Mwago said that during the audit, three medical doctors were out of the country for further studies and, hence, could not be considered ghosts.
“The audit shows that among the 99 workers, 33 of them are permanent and pensionable while others are casuals and interns. Failure for them to appear for the audit simply means they are ghost workers,'" she said.
The chairperson said the board is analysing how much the county could save to finance its development.
During the audit, members of staff were required to present themselves physically to the board and present their academic papers.
Muriithi’s administration includes 2,000 female workers and 1,179 male workers in the departments of Infrastructure, Administration, Agriculture, Finance, Health, Trade, Water and Education.
The report revealed 254 workers did not have any academic papers. This number included 150 workers in Health and Administration departments.
The county has 1,167 casual workers and 1,593 workers who are on permanent and pensionable terms.
The governor said the Executive and County Assembly were keen on cracking down on ghost workers to free up money for development.
“Now that we have this audit report, we will be able to know who is working and who is not working. We will remove both ghost and idle workers,” Muriithi said after meeting the board, County Executive Committee members and MCAs.
(Edited by V. Graham)