WAJIR, Kenya, Nov 16 – Wajir County Governor Ahmed Abdullahi has frozen recruitment of new employees until the ongoing Human Resource (HR) audit commissioned by his administration is concluded.
Abdullahi, who made a comeback to the helm of the county, says that his government has engaged a team of technical experts who are working with help of the Directorate of Personnel Management and the county public service board to help in carrying out the exercise.
According to the governor, the audit will be carried across all departments and will include but not limited to directors, deputy, and assistant directors to ascertain whether they have requisite and appropriate academic requirements such as a University degree.
The tough talking county boss issued a stern warning to individuals with forged or fake documents adding that they shall not be spared if found guilty once the ongoing audit ends.
“We have 6000 county staffs and 1500 of them have been discovered to be ghost workers. I am not hiring anyone; the board is not recruiting anyone as well. We have frozen recruitment of new employees until we clean the workforce,” he said on Tuesday while launching a consignment of medical items worth KES 69M, procured by the county from KEMSA.
There have been allegations that many people were put on the county payroll to earn salaries without even having employment or contract letters, while others, who were employed procedurally have not been reporting to work over the years.
As such, the audit exercise, the governor noted will be seeking to establish whether they were employed legally regretting that the devolved unit had been turned into a recruitment bureau, something he says, has hindered the provision of essential services to residents.
Governor Abdullahi however denied any witch-hunting whatsoever, terming the exercise, a bid to get rid the workforce of ghost workers to be able to meet its service provision priorities.
“I just want to sound a strong warning to county employees drawing salary without setting any foot in the office, that they would be dealt with legally and procedurally as provided in the HR manual,” the county boss reckoned.
He added: “It is very unfair to have a doctor spending at the hospital for a whole day while another one is comfortable at home yet they both draw salaries as county employees,”
The county boss lamented that the excessive establishment has resulted in channeling of funds into unnecessary salary payments hence funds for essential services to residents were unavailable.
He said that the county’s coffers were dried by the large percentage spent on recurrent expenditure with 78% of its budget going to employee salaries leaving a paltry 22 percent for development purposes.
“No one will be favored in this exercise. Even if my own family member is found earning without working, they will be removed from the county workforce. If you are in the payroll, work, report to the office, earn rightfully, and one will be victimized,” he held.
Abdullahi, who is nearing his first 100 days in office, had promised to deal with what he termed a bloated workforce that requires urgent reform to enable the prioritization of development programs.
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