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4,000 ghost workers in Kenyan capital

NAIROBI, Kenya, June 17 – An audit conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has revealed that there are 4, 215 ghost workers currently in City Hall’s payroll.

This constitutes 35 percent of the 12, 000 employees earning a salary from at the council.

Town Clerk Philip Kisia said on Thursday that of this figure, 3,026 employees did not take up medical cover offered by the council, raising concerns that they were non-existent.

A further 500 employees failed to produce their identification cards during the audit and 15 people who have died are still active in their system.

“I therefore direct that the 15 should be removed from the payroll with immediate effect,” Mr Kisia said and added: “We have another 145 people on our payroll who do not appear on the human resource list.”

Mr Kisia added that some employees have fake appointment letters while others acquired forged university degrees and certificates.

“We have 307 employees who have suspect appointment letters.  I thereby direct that they produce original letters of appointment within 14 days,” he said.

“There are 46 people with suspect university degrees.  I hereby direct that within 14 days from today, the certificates should be verified,” he stated.

He said that the initiative would help City Hall serve Nairobi city residents better.

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Mayor Geoffrey Majiwa pointed out that it was time to weed out all ghost-employees from City Hall’s payroll.

“There are those people who are going home immediately and there are those who are going home if certain requirements are not met. We are only stating that the law needs to be followed in everything that is taking place here,” the Mayor said.

He said that the council would not relent in its quest to root out corruption at City Hall.

“Somebody is given a free medical cover… something that many people are crying to get but they are not coming (to get it),” he stressed.

“This is very strange so you wonder why they are not coming for it and this is because they know that there are certain details that they must provide us with and this will reveal who they are.”

The audit was funded by the World Bank to the tune of Sh44 million and sought to confirm the exact number of staff at the council.

The headcount took three weeks but a comprehensive forensic audit is expected to take one year.

Mr Majiwa said that the PwC report would assist the council plan well and improve service delivery to Nairobi residents.

This skewed staffing has earned City Hall the dubious distinction of maintaining a bloated workforce with lacklustre service delivery.

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The council has also regularly featured in the list of Kenya\’s most corrupt institutions.

A recent review of City Hall\’s resources revealed that the council lacks critical professional staff including engineers, planners, architects and financial experts, a gap that has watered down its capacity to deliver quality services.

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