[Garissa Governor Ali Korane takes the oath of office at Garissa Primary School. He has said he will identify all ghost workers in the county.] (Photo/the-star.co.ke)The Garissa County government will conduct an investigation after more than 900 false names were found on its payroll.
Garissa Governor Ali Korane said 98 per cent of the county staff who are on the payroll do not report to work.
Mr Korane on Monday said about 6,200 people don’t report to any office when he revealed the shocking findings in a report by the Garissa County Service Board which was presented to him.
The governor said one staff member based in Mombasa has at least 100 active salary accounts and draws money from them every month through ATMs.
Mr Korane further said that his administration will seek to identify all the ghost workers in the county who have been receiving salaries.
“This one staffer withdraws pay for 100 people, whom we don’t know. We’ll clean up this mess. In the process, some people will suffer.”
“Out of 6,350 allegedly employed by this county, only 73 had offices. Over 6,200 people don’t actually report to any office,” he said as quoted by the Star.
“They have no offices, furniture, desks or job descriptions, but are paid. They only exist on the payroll,” the governor added.
Mr Korane said they will use the report to carry out a thorough audit of the county functions as the new administration will be investigating officials over the revelations.
Governor Korane had accused his predecessor Nathif Jama of doing little to end corruption in his administration saying the board, in a confidential letter to Jama, had pointed out these irregularities, but the former governor did nothing to fix them.
“There is no way as a county we’ll recognise people not recognised by the County Service Board. Under which law do I recognise them?,” asked the governor.