The national government in conjunction with Siaya County has kicked off a manual headcount on all pensioners in a bid to curb ghost beneficiaries. The exercise is being conducted by officers from the National Treasury.
According to Michael Ole Tialal who is the Siaya County Commissioner, the 10-day exercise seeks to determine the exact number of all retired public servants who are legally entitled to receive pension in the county.
The County Commissioner further stated that the exercise would widely clean the pensioners payroll by identifying and removing possible ghost pensioners.
“It was discovered that there are a lot of fraudulent activities which have been going on in various government sectors, including the police force where a headcount also established a number of ghost workers,” Tialal said.
The county administrator is now calling upon all documented pensioners from the region to turn up in their for the exercise, noting that anyone who fails to attend will be removed from the list of beneficiaries.
Furthermore, all potential beneficiaries who might have missed to join the scheme in the past for a reason will also be considered for registration. This, however, is subject to verification of documents to ascertain their eligibility.