Staff audit kicks off in Homa Bay in bid to weed out ghost workers
The Homa Bay County Government on Wednesday, February 1, 2023, launched a three-day verification exercise of the county's payroll.
This after the successful completion of the pilot phases of the payroll and personnel census audit project which was conducted by Price Waterhouse Coopers a consultant company which was hired by the county government.
The audit was carried out to weed out ghost workers who have inflated the wage bill in the county.
"This is to notify all the staff of the official verification process of the payroll and personnel census audit project which will start on Wednesday 1, 2023," County Secretary Benard Muok said in a letter addressed to all members of staff.
According to Muok, the audit targets permanent and pensionable staff within Homa Bay Town Sub-county which serves as the county's headquarters.
The Wednesday exercise will involve officers from governor's office, the directorate of human resources management,Homa Bay Municipal Board, and all the eleven ministries at the governor's office.
On Thursday, the verification exercise will involve all permanent and pensionable employees in public health and medical services departments in the Homa Bay Teaching and Referral Hospital.
The exercise will also be carried out in all departments based in Ndhiwa Sub County at Ndhiwa Sub County Administration Offices.
"You are hereby required to present yourself on the day and the hour indicated on the letter," reads part of the letter.
According to Muok, the verification process will entail a physical head count of all employees, review of the payroll data against staff numbers, budgets, actual payroll, and payment detail and testing the same for consistency, completeness and accuracy.
It will also cover the study of employee bio-data, job groups, salary information, academic and professional qualifications and work status.
The employees will be required to avail National Identification card or any other documents used during employment, a letter of employment or contract and letters of extension of the contract if any.
They are also expected to avail letters of arrival at the workstation, confirmation, promotion if any, interdiction or suspension if any, three most recent payslips, certified copies of education and professional certificates and salary account details.
"You are therefore requested to cooperate and provide the consultants with any information they may require," Muok stated.
In September last year, Governor Gladys Wanga held a meeting with the audit firm officials together with others from the Salaries and Remuneration Commission where they discussed how they would clean up the county government payroll.
Wanga said up to 75 per cent of the county's budget is spent on paying salaries and on recurrent expenditures.
She said Homa Bay cannot progress if only 25 per cent of the budget is left to undertake development.
“Homa Bay spends much of its Ksh7.8 billion budget on wages and recurrent expenditure. To improve service delivery we must streamline all our systems,” she said.
