Image courtesy PM News, Nigeria

The Kenya Forum has been publishing articles on this and related subjects for over ten years (see below): the state employment of ‘ghost workers’, employees with fake degree certificates, and questionable salary payments. Little seems to have changed over the last decade. This time the spotlight is on the Garissa County Government.

An audit of the Garissa government has found that over 130 ‘top-level staff’ – directors and deputies – who do not have a legitimate degree certificate which is required for their employment.

‘Ghost Workers’

The audit also revealed that the county employs 100 drivers in its transport department despite the fact that it only has 12 vehicles.

The report, which has been made public by Garissa County’s Governor Nathif Jama, has come to the hardly startling conclusion that the county has been employing a lot of ghost workers.

Governor Jama said 3,500 people have been employed who are earning salaries through the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Database (IPPD) as well as in excel sheet payments for casual workers.

The Governor (quoted in The Star newspaper) said that, “Close to 7,000 staff are earning salaries both in the official salary system and in excel sheets, where payments of hundreds if not thousands of casuals are processed.”

Wage bill Sh450 million per month

Nathhif Jama continued, “The county was paying close to Sh450 million per month from the monthly exchequer and our wage bill was around 70 per cent, which is way above the legal of 35 per cent under the PFM act.”

Facing criticism for the arbitrary sacking of county employees, Jama has set up a task force to hear complaints of unfair dismissal.

Jama hit back at critics: “You cannot be a county that is largely a wage-paying county and at the same time expect development. Everyone knows that there were no drugs in hospitals and medics were depressed and on the verge of closing facilities.

“One thing that our people need to appreciate is that we cannot all expect to be employed by the county.”

From the Kenya Forum archives:

Spooky But True… The Ghost Workers of NCC (9/11/2010)

Ghostly Apparitions from Nairobi to Mombasa: Where Next? (27/7/2013)

Ghost Busters Needed in Nairobi (9/9/2013)

Nairobi’s Ghost Workers: When Will This Scandal End? (7/3/2014)

Uhuru Steps in to Exorcise Ghost Workers Via Registration of Civil Servants (2/9/2014)

Anne Waiguru Biometric Registration Captures 12,500 Ghost Workers on Government’s Payroll (2011/11/2020)

Did KNBS Pay ‘Ghost Workers’ Sh18.5m for Census? (25/11/2021)