- Departments of finance, procurement and planning manned by personnel without adequate skills.
- Ottichillo says previous County Public Service Board never provided comprehensive data on workers.
Three financial years down the line, Vihiga Governor Wilber Ottichilo is yet to know the number of staff in the county.
The departments of finance, procurement and planning are manned by personnel without adequate skills, the governor said.
“We, as the county government of Vihiga, cannot say with absolute certainty how many people are employed and deployed in the county government,” Ottichilo stated.
He said he sought help from the Directorate of Personnel Management in the President’s office but they were unable to rectify the mess in the six months they stayed in Vihiga.
Ottichilo made the revelation while addressing a special sitting of the county assembly on Tuesday afternoon.
He said the previous County Public Service Board never provided comprehensive data on county workers.
The county is struggling with a bloated wage bill.
CPSB Gladys Analo demanded to know why the county still had a huge wage bill even after dismissing 3,000 workers.
“Our wage bill went down but something mysterious occurred and discontinued people made their way back to the payroll," the governor said.
"We further moved on to change staff in the payroll but the mess keeps re-occurring.”
He said certain cartels had taken control of the systems and colluded with staff of the county government.
The governor said the matter had been taken up by the new CPSB and a human resource audit was in place.
He said the process will be completed in this financial year.
Ottichillo surprised the house by claiming that the procurement department is manned by unqualified staff hired by former Governor Moses Akaranga.
"We have no senior procurement officers within our department. National Treasury recommended the head of procurement department last year."
He said most staff in procurement, finance and economic planning departments lack adequate skills.
"The majority of staffs in procurement lack experience and were recruited as enforcement officers,” Ottichillo stated.
Edited by Henry Makori