Homa Bay assembly has lost more than Sh4.5 million through ghost workers in the last one year, the House leadership has revealed.
Speaking to journalists in his office yesterday, Majority leader Walter Muok said the new management had undertaken a payroll audit which showed that the previous assembly service board leadership employed an additional 19 workers.
The ghost workers were employed as ward employees. The assembly has 40 elected MCAs and 20 others who are nominated.
Each of the elected MCAs has 3 employees in their offices while each of their nominated colleagues has one employee. This means the assembly should have 140 employees.
Each of the employees is paid Sh20,000 per month.
Muok said they realised the loss after carrying out changes in the membership of the assembly service board.
The majority leader said they are still conducting audits in other sectors of the assembly to ensure there is no more embezzlement of public funds.
Present at the press conference were MCAs Dan Were (Kakelo Kokwanyo), Ellyphalet Osuri (Ruma Kaksingri) and Evaline Otieno.
They condemned the financial misappropriation in the county assembly.
“We will invite the EACC to intervene in the matter so that legal measures are taken against the people responsible for loss of the county assembly funds,” Were said.
Osuri said they were committed to making leadership changes in the assembly to ensure those who misuse public funds are ousted from their offices.
“People should understand that we are putting this assembly in order to enable discharge our duties effectively,” Osuri said.
Changes made in the service board include removal of former majority leader Richard Ogindo, minority leader John Njira and Clerk Bob Kephas.
Kephas was charged with misuse of funds by the EACC in August this year.