The Central Organization of Trade Unions (COTU) has through its boss Francis Atwoli, come forth to criticize the recently launched Capacity Assessment and Rationalization of the Public Service (CARPS) which seeks to register all civil servants through the biometric system.

Atwoli has claimed that all civil servants are digitally registered in specific departments in the respective organizations they work for and that the government is just using the biometric registration process as a guise to sack public servants, especially county government employees.

“President Moi computerized the civil service long time ago and Kibaki improved on what Moi had put in place. We cannot be told that at this age and time it’s when the biometric system is being used to get rid of ghost workers,” said Atwoli.

According to Atwoli, it’s not realistic for the government demands for the original appointment letters for the civil servants as most have lost the documents.

“You cannot ask somebody who has been working for the last 30, 40 or even 56 years with four years to retire that you want an original letter, that is an abuse and am asking the president together with the Minister in charge of that particular department to rescind this or if they want to do it, let them do it with a human face,” he said.

President Uhuru Kenyatta officiated the launch of CARPS at State House Mombasa on Monday this week citing the programme as an effort to weed out ghost workers and tame the ballooning public service wage bill.

Speaking during the launch, Uhuru had maintained that the overall objective of CARPS is to align Government structures, processes and programmes to the mandates and functions of national and county governments to enhance efficiency and effectiveness in public service delivery in line with the constitution and vision 2030 and not an exercise to punish or victimize anyone.

Do you think the biometric registration is a step in the right direction and do you think Atwoli views are justified?