Nakuru Senator has raised the red flag over the high number of ghost workers in the county government.
James Mungai claimed there were irregular employment of staff in Nakuru County, leading to bloated wage bill.
He said the swollen wage bill has hindered service delivery by the Kinuthia Mbugua led government.
“I have read with dismay reports in the media that the county Public Service Board has been engaging in illegal recruitment of staff. This vindicates my early concerns that the county has a bloated workforce that has led to a high wage bill affecting delivery of services and initiating of development projects,” he said in a press statement.
Mungai said the county wage bill is way above the legally stipulated 35 per cent of the annual budget, and called for urgent intervention.
He faulted the county assembly over failure to detect cases of nonprocedural employment of county workers.
“It is disturbing that the county assembly failed to detect and deter the issue of irregular employment of staff-leading to the current crisis,” he said.
Mungai demanded that a special forensic audit of all staff be conducted within the next two months and the report made public.
He said the audit should deal with actual number of staff, their qualifications, salaries and their respective departments or work stations.
“This report will bring to light the exact staff situation at the county and also weed out ghost workers and those irregularly employed,” he said.
He called upon the Ethic and Anti-Corruption (EACC), the office of the Director of Public Prosecution and other relevant state agencies to take action against those culpable.