More than half of Baringo's Sh8 billion budget will go towards paying staff salaries, leaving very little for development.
The budget was presented to the county assembly in Kabarnet town by finance executive Dr.David Sergon on Thursday.
MCAs noted the huge wage bill, at 56 per cent blaming it on the growing number of ‘ghost’ workers.
The MCA's asked Governor Stanley Kiptis to stop hiring more staff.
“We could not be able to allocate enough money to the projects because a half of the total budget had to be slashed to pay the salaries of the county staff,” assembly’s budget and appropriation Chairman John Aengwo said.
Aengwo said the wage bill recommended nationally is 35 per cent but it has surprisingly shot up in Baringo to 56, cautioning Kiptis against hiring extra workers.
He said during the budget-making process, the County Public Service Board hesitated to produce the entire list of genuine workers for every department.
“They had no clear records of individual staff on the payroll so putting us in doubt if the county could be paying a number of none-existing employees,” Aengwo said.
He further said the huge wage bill has forced the budget committee to cut off the annual ward development fund from sh30million down to sh27million for the thirty wards.
Governor kiptis confirmed to the Star of the ballooning cases of ghost workers.
He said he has already assigned independent auditors to ascertain the list of genuine staff
"After the audit, we will act to layoff some people otherwise now it is difficult, if you touch on someone then it will be another court case after another," he said
An earlier audit report indicates that Baringo County may have paid over Sh272 million to ghost workers in its 2014-2015 financial year.