Laikipia County government has rolled out an audit of all its workers in a bid to rid itself of ghost workers.
Governor Ndiritu Muriithi, while launching the month long exercise in Nanyuki town on Monday, said that it will also help the devolved unit in determining staff competences, level of academic qualification as well as help in placement of workers in various sectors of the government.
“By the end of this exercise, we intend to ensure that our staff have the right jobs depending on their qualifications, determine promotions and also help in cleaning the payroll,” Muriithi said while addressing his staff at Nanyuki social hall.
The exercise will capture biometrics of all county government workers as well as establish a database of their academic qualifications and competences.
The governor observed that there were some employees who carry out tasks outside their job description and gave examples of clerical officers who double up as accountants and cashiers.
“We need to address some of these anomalies because if some employees have advanced on their on their academic training they deserve to be promoted to the next level so that they motivated and more productive,” he said.
The staff audit is seen as a move by the County government to reduce its ballooning wage bill which the governor revealed stood at Sh.2.7 billion annually and was eating into the development budget.
“Our current wage bill stands at 55 percent of the county budget and according to management practices, it should not go beyond 35 percent of local funds,” the governor said at a recent function in his office.
“We shall also embark on job enrichment to ensure our workforce is motivated and thus more productive and empowered,” he added.
Muriithi further said that other measures the government would employ would be to stop salaries for employees who go for study leave.
He revealed that over 40 doctors from the county were currently on study leave and drawing salaries from the county administration but offering no services.
By Martin Munyi
