Jitters as County staff head count report set to be released

Kisii Governor James Ongwae. [Photo: Courtesy]

The county government is preparing to release a head count report at the end of the week.

The exercise, launched by Governor James Ongwae 12 days ago, is intended to clean the payroll, develop a skills inventory, reconcile personnel records, determine bona fide county employees and manage the huge wage bill.

“Through this, we hope to reduce the recurrent expenditure significantly and add to the development budget as we seek to ensure a proper balance to achieve acceptable ratios,” said Mr Ongwae.

Workers were also scrutinised to ensure that they were working with proper documentation.

The governor promised to release the report in two weeks after which relevant government bodies could take up their responsibilities to harmonise the staff payroll.

But Ongwae faces an uphill task in trying to clean up the payroll because the county lacks a substantive public service board whose mandate includes advising the county government on human resource management and development.

The Controller of Budget has listed the county as one among 35 whose expenditure on staff salaries is too high.