An audit has established that the Homa Bay County Government may have lost Sh300 million paid to ghost workers over the past years.
At a media briefing on Thursday 24th August 2023 by Homabay Governor Gladys Wanga, revealed that over Sh. 300 million has been lost by paying for ghost workers in the county who were employed during the time of former Governor Cyprian Awiti.
This revelation was made known after Price Waterhouse Coopers consultants on November 21, 2022, performed a personnel census audit and handed the report to the county boss and his deputy Oyugi Magwanga.
The report established that 1,786 ghost workers had been earning salaries from the county payroll which included under-age staff with some employed at 16 years of age.
She revealed that 479 people were on the payroll but their names were not seen on the HR list. 556 people did not present any legitimate employment certificates, and 129 individuals lacked any files in the County Registry. 287 individuals did not appear at all for verification of the workers during the physical counting exercise.
There is also another category of 322 individuals who lacked the necessary academic qualifications. These included those who lack practice licenses issued by the respective professional bodies they claimed to belong to. They also include people who had fake Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) certificates.
This group also comprised individuals who claimed to have studied in some universities and colleges but when contacted, the institutions dismissed the authenticity of their certificates. Ten of them were caught while designing and printing fake certificates in cyber cafes in Homa Bay town.
The audit revealed that the workers have been earning salaries totaling more than Sh300 million annually.
Wanga who was accompanied by her Deputy Oyugi Magwanga, County Secretary Benard Muok, and PWC partner Simon Mutinda said they are going to implement recommendations of the report by cleaning the payroll.
This audit closes the first phase which focuses entirely on verifying County employees and payroll data, the two phases will be able to clear staff structure for the County’s public service and implement a Human Resource Management System aimed at serving the people of Homa Bay County more effectively.
“Our objective is to tame the wage bill and improve efficiency in service delivery by engaging qualified personnel,” Wanga said.
“We shall now embark on an administrative and legal journey to ensure that we fully implement the recommendations given effective immediately until we establish an efficient and effective public service, which will enable my administration to satisfactorily deliver on our pledges and promises to the people of Homabay.”
Homabay County runs on a budget of Sh. 7.8 Billion of which over 70% is spent paying wage bills and recurrent expenditure hence the need for the exercise in order to streamline the services offered to the people.
In 2021/2022 counties spent Sh. 190.11 billion on wage Bills and most of it is spent funding ghost workers. Out of the 47 counties that made their staff audit findings public, Kiambu had 2299 and West Pokot had 2300 making them have the highest number of ghost workers.
By GBS Reporter: Susan Wambui