NAIROBI, Kenya Jan 9 – Former National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) Director General Francis Mejja has vowed to implement stringent measures to address the issues of fake academic papers and ghost workers in the public sector.
Speaking before the National Assembly Labor Committee during his vetting for a position as a member of the Public Service Commission (PSC), Mejja outlined his plans to leverage data integration between academic institutions and PSC to address the problem.
“In my honest opinion, the issue of wage bills, fake papers, and ghost workers has been allowed to go on for too long. We have the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) database—why don’t we interface the system of KNEC with PSC? We don’t need to wait to verify and certify documents when they are readily available,” he said.
Mejja, whose net worth is reported at Sh322 million, criticized the current system of verifying academic papers only occasionally within the public service, insisting that verification should happen at the point of employment through digitized systems.
“An interface with these systems will allow us to disqualify candidates with fake papers even at the application stage. This has been a costly oversight, and it needs to stop,” he stated.
The former NTSA Director General also promised to address the issue of ghost workers by streamlining accountability systems within the public sector.
“Ghost workers exist because of poor accountability. Why don’t we have ghost workers in the private sector? Everyone in a position should be accountable for the people they manage. Under my watch, this will not be tolerated,” Mejja vowed.
Mejja, who once aspired to run for the Kajiado gubernatorial seat, further called for the automation of the public recruitment system to enhance efficiency and reduce delays.
“It’s unacceptable that an applicant can wait six months just to receive a regret. Recruitment processes must be automated to save time and resources,” he argued.
He also proposed measures to prevent unqualified candidates from applying for positions they are ineligible for, saying, “If a job at the director level requires 15 years of experience, a fresh graduate applying for it should be disqualified at the application stage. This will save both the candidates and the system from unnecessary time wastage.”
