Many Vihiga county staff have no formal education: Report
Governor of Vihiga Wilber Ottichilo during a past press conference.
What you need to know:
- The interim report by the county public service board shows that 84 employees have no formal schooling while 75 others only have primary school education.
- Of the remaining staff, 11 have attained the PhD level, 65 have Master’s degrees, Bachelor’s degree (323), diploma (973) and certificate (386).
An audit of staffing at Vihiga County government has revealed that people with no formal schooling are among the 2,208 employees who have pushed the devolved unit’s wage bill to Sh138.9 million.
The wage bill is an increase from the Sh100 million paid every month by the previous administration.
The interim report by the county public service board shows that 84 employees have no formal schooling while 75 others only have primary school education.
Of the remaining staff, 11 have attained the PhD level, 65 have Master’s degrees, Bachelor’s degree (323), diploma (973) and certificate (386).
Board chairman Franklin Esipila said a complete report will be released ‘soon’.
“This is an interim report. We are yet to finalise it. In the next few days, we will release the final report,” Mr Esipila said.
The report also shows that 2.8 per cent of the staff do not have knowledge of their responsibilities.
The interim report comes five months after Governor Wilber Ottichilo shockingly revealed that the number of staff in his administration is not known
The report calls for a further audit on employees who do not have formal schooling and with primary level education alone.
The report revealed that most certificates presented are of questionable authenticity.
It adds that 16 per cent of the total employees are earning ‘questionable salaries’.
Further, 8.5 per cent of the workforce do not have the required qualifications for the job groups they have been placed in.
Speaking during an informal meeting at the county assembly in March, Dr Ottichilo said the inability to know the county’s staffing was caused by lack of human resource data.
He revealed that some of the 800 contracted staff who were dismissed in June 2018 were sneaked back to the payroll.
“Some of the people who had been sacked found their way back through cartels within the human resource and payroll departments," Dr Ottichilo said in March.
The interim report recommends that another audit be conducted immediately with a view of weeding out ghost workers.
“To clearly identify and expel ghost workers on the payroll and reprimand the offenders, it’s recommended that only the verified 2,208 employees be paid and those not paid can avail themselves for board clearance if they are genuine.”
Some of the staff do not have personal employment numbers.
