The Nyamira County Government has sent home payroll staff over the loss of Sh84 million, to pave way for investigations.
The county has reportedly been losing Sh1.16 million every month over the last six years, in a scam that involved fraudulent payment of salaries.
Deputy Governor Amos Nyaribo said the decision to send home staff was reached after a human resource and payroll audit report which was released on Thursday by a contracted firm.
In March, the County Government contracted Institute of Human Resource Audit to carry out an independent inventory of county staff in an effort to cleanse the payroll.
According to the preliminary report, the County of Nyamira has been losing an average of Sh1.16 million every month to 24 officers who were being fraudulently paid together with an individual who was not an employee of the County Government.
“As a result of the audit report, the County Executive Committee has resolved to suspend the 24 officers and also decided to send the entire payroll staff on a 15-day paid administrative leave effective immediately to give room for further investigations,” Mr Nyaribo said.
In another shocking revelation, top managers are among 32 county employees who used faked academic certificates to secure the jobs.
Releasing the report, Nyaribo said the 32 were from a batch of 535 workers whose Form Four certificates were forwarded to the Kenya National Examinations Council for verification.
Credentials examined
The names have been forwarded to the Directorate of Criminal Intelligence.
"We have 4,000 county employees and all of them must pass through the process of having their credentials examined and we are sure more other such cases will be found," Nyaribo said.
The audit was prompted by an outcry from the public and civil societies over employment of people with questionable academic qualifications.
Nyaribo promised to more damning revelations about various issues that are negatively affecting the devolved unit. Panic has gripped the county as the purge over corruption gets underway.
Governor John Nyangarama is currently in the US.
