Governor Susan Kihika orders biometric staff audit in bid to weed out ghost workers
Nakuru Governor Susan Kihika has ordered a biometric staff audit in bid to weed out ghost workers .
Nakuru Governor Susan Kihika has ordered a biometric staff audit to weed out ghost workers and illegally hired county employees.
The exercise will be conducted in all the 11 sub-counties of Nakuru.
The move comes at a time the county is grappling with a burgeoning wage bill that has hit Sh7.4 billion in the financial year 2022/2023.
The Nation has established that a biometric registration that was to take place throughout the month of February, was put off to sort out logistical issues.
“It is true the biometric audit was to take place in February, though it was put on hold to sort out some logistical issues. It will eventually take place,” said county Chief of Staff Peter Ketyenya.
According to a communiqué to staff dated February 10, signed by County Secretary Samuel Mwaura, employees had been asked to go for the registration between February 15 and 17.
“The county government of Nakuru has planned for the biometric registration for all county staff. Every staff will be expected to appear in person for the registration, having filled the biometric registration form prior to the exercise,” read part of the circular to staff.
The workers are required to have their national identification cards, passports, letter of first appointment and current appointment, secondary school exam certificate and other academic credentials.
Nakuru has been grappling with a huge wage bill, 10 years since the advent of devolution, which gobbles up more than half of the county’s annual budget.
The devolved unit has at least 6,000 staff on its payroll, most of whom were inherited from the defunct municipal council.
In the past five years, the county has recruited more employees, adding more than 1,200 to the payroll.
According to the 2017/2018 Auditor General report, Nakuru County government’s wage bill increased from Sh4,443,861,221 in 2014/2015, to Sh5,110, 659,087 in 2016/2017 financial year and 5, 554,520,308 in the 2017/2018 financial year.
Salaries and wages
Records from the finance department indicate that out of the Sh17 billion budget for the 2022/2023 financial year, the county will use a whopping Sh7.46 billion (43.6 per cent) for salaries and wages.
“Operations and maintenance, Sh4.538 billion (26.5 per cent) and development expenditure Sh5.137 billion, which translates to 30 per cent of the total expenditure,” reads part of the data on the implementation of the 2022/2023 budget.
The county government, according to the data, has been exceeding the recommended expenditure of 35 per cent for the past five years.
The Public Finance Management Act 2015 sets a limit of the county government’s expenditure on wages and benefits at 35 per cent of the county’s total revenue.
The wage bill has grown from Sh6 billion in the 2020/2021 financial year, to Sh7.4billion, attributed to hiring of more staff in the previous years.
In the 2021/2022 budget, the county government budget was Sh17.4 billion, with an additional roll-over allocation for ongoing projects of Sh5.6 billion from the 2020/2021 financial year.
However, it emerged that, from the Sh17.4 billion for expenditure, the county government spent Sh6.2 billion (42.3 per cent) on salaries, Sh4.2 billion (24.4 per cent) on recurrent expenditure and only Sh5.8 billion (33.3 per cent) on development.
The Nation has established that new recruitments including; nursery school teachers, engineers, health workers, enforcement officers and fire fighters were behind the burgeoning wage bill.
In the past two years, for instance, the county has recruited more employees, adding to the 5,000 staff on its payroll.
The amount spent as salaries and allowances in the years was more than 40 per cent of the total budgets.
The wage bill then rose to Sh6 billion between 2019 and 2021, before hitting Sh7.4 billion.
In 2017, days after taking over office, Governor Lee Kinyanjui sacked nearly 200 employees, among them sub-county administrators, their deputies, and ward administrators.
Mr Kinyanjui then told journalists the move would allow an evaluation of the workers’ skills suitability and possible re-engagement.
He would later replace the county's Public Service Board, which he accused of irregular recruitment of staff.
The governor cited erratic hiring of staff as well as arbitrary promotions by the previous regime.
Later, a Nakuru court reversed the decision and reinstated 115 of the 200 employees
In May 2018, he ordered a staff audit, which gave shocking details that the devolved unit had been losing Sh26 million annually to ghost workers.
The biometric staff audit conducted by PriceWaterhouseCoopers between May 28 and June 16, 2018, revealed that the county government paid an average of Sh1.13 million annually to ghost workers.
The audit report further revealed that 23 employees were not accounted for but were still retained in the county payroll, taking home salaries and benefits. Also 136 staff in the payroll were missing from the biometric register.
The audit revealed, that during the now-defunct municipal system, positions of irrelevant employees including rat catchers were created, contributing to the burgeoning wage bill.
Civil society groups, including the Nakuru County Public Opinion Consultative Initiative and Nakuru Residents Association have previously asked the county administration to evaluate staff and only hire necessary employees and send the ageing workers on voluntary early retirement to tame the burgeoning wage bill.
