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Citizen Weekly

Monday 28 July 2014

NAROK COUNTY GOVERNMENT GHOST WORKERS PAID MILLIONS MONTHLY



Panic has gripped the management staff of Narok county government as they ponder what next following exposure by a recently carried out  human resource audit of a major financial scandal involving millions of shillings through payment of salaries to non-existing staff.

President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy William Ruto have been called upon to move with speed and order immediate arrest and prosecution of of those behind financial mess at the mostly considered the richest county in the country.

The Narok county government has for many years been losing Sh24 million every month that translate to close Sh300 million annually through payment of ghost workers, the audit has revealed .

Narok county governor Samuel ole Tunai who officially received the audit report in his office quickly exonerated his one year administration from blame saying the detected mess in the payroll was inherited from the former Narok county and town councils administrations.

Tunai said the  12 weeks  staff audit carried out by Deloitte and Touche revealed that more than  200 ghost employee have been receiving their ‘salaries’ some to the tune of more Sh100,000 monthly through their fictitious bank accounts.

The governor who was flanked by his deputy Everlin Eruasa and county executive officers among others explained that some of the alleged ghost workers were among the staff in the health and agriculture departments that  were recently  devolved to the county government.
During the auditing exercise according to the report a total of 2,363 employees inherited from the former Narok county council presented themselves for the headcount, registration and verification process .

The report revealed that 300 employees could not ascertain how they got employed because they had no supporting documents that matched the human resource records that could firmly support their presence in the payroll.

The 166 reported ghost employee who did not present themselves before the vetting panel received monthly salaries to a tune of  Sh15 million that translate to  close to Sh186 million annually .

The report further reveals that 13 of the perceived ghost workers were still active workers despite their records showing that they attained mandatory retirement age years ago. They however  earned a total of more than Sh1.2 million monthly.
Among the 903 officers devolved from the central government, the report  adds,  85 could not be physically traced but all earned a whopping Sh7.4million monthly

The report released to the press by the governor further revealed that among the devolved staff to the county government from the central government 11 had no appointment letters but earned more than Sh1.8 million monthly a problem inherited from their mother ministry .
More interestingly 42 staff did not appear in the human resource register and in the payroll thus their actual monthly pay could not be easily established but estimated.

The report further reveals that another group of 42 individuals were irregularly hired without appointment letters or with unsigned appointment letters and were paid a total of Sh3.5 million monthly.

A furious Governor Tunai said during a press briefing in his Narok town office that that all those who will be implicated in  the unearthed financial scandal in the county government will face the full force of the law irrespective of their political or social status.
He said that beside facing fraud charges they will have to pay back the lost money

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