Nyandarua county conducts headcount to weed out ghost workers

Nyandarua County government employees queue for a headcount at the county headquarters on March 5, 2018 PHOTO | WAIKWA MAINA | NATION MEDIA GROUP

The county government of Nyandarua has embarked on a staff audit to get rid of ghost workers and clean its payroll before reforming its public service.

Supervising the audit, Public Administration executive Kariuki Mbataru said the county pays Sh10 million monthly to casual workers who cannot be accounted for.

The head count was launched by Governor Francis Kimemia who said they will enforce discipline.

He said the first five years of devolution eroded the public confidence, and, to restore the confidence his government’s responsibility is to institutionalize a result based public service where every public servant is placed on a performance contract and a log-in system to account for each hour and days worked.

“The exercise will guide us in rationalizing, attracting, retaining, motivating and developing skilled staff for our county public services. The headcount will be carried out in every department to be followed by a staff audit, payroll cleanse and capacity audit to guide re-deployment and recruitment based on needs,” said the governor.

He said the county has a critical shortage of staff in sensitive areas of health, agriculture, tourism, sports, industry, and information communication technology/.