Cases of ghost workers and irregular hiring have been on the rise in Counties over the recent past. Just recently, Vihiga Governor Wilbur Otichillo introduced a liquid cash payment system as a way of taming ghost workers. But do you think this could work?
Well, Senior county officials may be involved in the irregular hiring and promotion of staff at the county government of Nyamira.
The county has close to 5,000 workers, with lower cadre staff whose roles are purely non-skills-based comprising more than half of the entire work force.
A majority of employees in the class of sweepers, subordinate and enforcement staff were irregularly recruited, according to Nyamira Civil Society Chairman John Kebaso.
The County Public Service Board hired 93 enforcement and subordinate staff, but today, there are over 2,000 such workers whose employment is now in question.
The Ethics and Anti-corruption Commission had investigated an initial recruitment of 800 enforcement staff in 2017, but no conclusive results have come forth since.
Mr Kebaso yesterday accused the county leadership of abetting the illegal hiring which he said was being done by some senior officers.
“We are aware of an employment cartel which has been soliciting Sh200,000 in exchange for appointment letters,” he said.
“Some staff have been promoted and skipped through three job grades within one year, how is this possible?”Deputy Governor Amos Nyaribo told a local daily that an investigation was underway.
Last week, Governor John Nyagarama suspended the entire payroll staff in what he said was a positive step in investigating the alleged employment scam.