Governor Amos Nyaribo has expunged 79 employees with forged academic and professional certificates from the payroll.
While issuing an official statement concerning the decision, Governor Nyaribo confirmed that the county undertook a rigorous authentication process for its staff’s academic and professional certificates, which revealed that some staff were employed illegally.
“I initiated the payroll cleansing exercise, and in the first phase of this exercise, 2821 employees’ certificates were submitted to the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC), to various respective colleges and universities to authenticate their validity,” Governor Nyaribo said.
“A report submitted to us indicated that 76 certificates from KNEC were forged, including three diploma and degree certificates. Some universities are still scrutinising certificates submitted to them, and they will table their findings in due course.” Assured the governor.
He further said that some of the forgeries discovered in the certificates included the alteration of mean grades, subjects, examination centres, and codes; some index Numbers didn’t belong to some officers; and some even replaced their names in certificates which did not belong to them.
“Among the highly affected departments in the payroll cleansing exercise are health, with 24 employees, finance 13, public service management 13, land, education, and environment 13, and three officers had forged diplomas and certificates,” Nyaribo said.
He said that further administration action will be taken against 245 employees who were irregularly promoted without following due process. The payroll cleansing exercise will be done in up to four phases for enhanced and efficient service delivery to the people of Nyamira.
“The axe has started falling on unscrupulous employees who were either employed illegally or promoted erroneously with all the fairness the exercise deserves without any victimization. Those who have missed out on promotions for long will be equally considered for promotion,” said Nyaribo.
He stated that the immediate stoppage of salaries of 79 employees has been affected with notification letters already issued to them. Disciplinary and administrative action against them has been initiated, and their names have been forwarded to the Director of Criminal Investigation (DCI) and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC).
“This move will go a long way in dropping the county’s wage bill by Ksh. 4.8 million per month. It will further ensure services in this county are executed by properly trained professionals who can exude services to our people efficiently and professionally.
By Deborah Bochere
