Planning secretary Anne Waiguru. PHOTO | SALATON NJAU
What you need to know:
Planning and Devolution secretary Anne Waiguru says fresh exercise from next week will help State clean up bloated payroll.
But the Union of Kenya Civil Servants opposed the audit, warning that the government should not victimise State workers in the pretext of eliminating ghost workers.
Secretary-general Tom Odenge said there were no ghost workers in the national government’s payroll.
The government will from next week start registering civil servants afresh to weed out ghost workers amid opposition from the workers union.
Planning and Devolution secretary Anne Waiguru Tuesday said the exercise would commence on September 1 in Nairobi and would be extended to the remaining 46 counties from September 15.
The headcount will include ministry staff, county workers and parastatal employees.
“We expect all public servants to register afresh. They will be told which centres to go to within the public service both at the national level and county level,” said Ms Waiguru in an interview with Nation FM.
But the Union of Kenya Civil Servants opposed the fresh audit, warning that the government should not victimise State workers in the pretext of eliminating ghost workers.
Secretary-general Tom Odenge said there were no ghost workers in the national government’s payroll.
The government in January disclosed that taxpayers lose an estimated Sh1.8 billion every year in salary payments to non-existent workers in the Civil Service, sparking a public outcry.
The shocking revelation which was made public by President Uhuru Kenyatta sent the government back to the drawing board.
Ms Waiguru said public workers would be required to present their documents like IDs, certificates, letters of appointment and promotion letters where applicable at the specified centres.
She said this would help the government establish whether staff records in its system match those who would present themselves physically.
The January audit unearthed that the government burns Sh150 million monthly in salaries for workers who are non-existent, dead, retired or sacked, but were still retained in the ballooning State payroll.
To arrest the situation, President Kenyatta directed the Ministry of Devolution and Planning, in collaboration with the National Treasury, to outsource the services of a consultant to undertake a comprehensive human resource audit and payroll cleansing exercise.
The government also froze all salary reviews.
Ms Waiguru said the new staff registration was part of the measures to better manage its bloated wage bill and drive down staff costs.
A higher wage bill has condemned the Treasury to channel less than 30 per cent of the national budget towards development expenditure, in violation of the Public Finance Management Act.
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