Nakuru County launches head-count of staff to weed out ghost workers

Nakuru Governor Lee Kinyanjui

The county government has launched a headcount of all its staff as part of efforts to eliminate ghost workers.

Public Service Management Executive Lawrence Mwangangi said the exercise involves capturing of bio-metric data of about 5,000 employees on the payroll.

“The exercise will start with staff at the Nakuru County Referral Hospital,” said Mr Mwangangi, adding that it will be conducted by PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

The administration of Governor Lee Kinyanjui (pictured) inherited an annual wage bill of Sh5.17 billion, but it has grown to Sh6 billion in the 2018/2019 budget that will be read in June. The wage bill makes the county the third biggest payer of salaries.

The county will also look into the files of all employees on permanent and pensionable terms and those on contracts. “We will be collecting information from the work station, people will have to give auditors their personal data, employment documents, deployment date and other details,” said Mwangangi.

The bio-metric registration is likely to take two weeks, but the entire audit exercise is expected to end on June 15, the official said.

The staff and skills audit comes at a time when the county is struggling with the huge wage bill that experts have warned may derail development of projects in the next financial year.