Migori: Public service board raises concern over countys rising wage bill

Migori’s public service board has raised concern over the county’s bulging wage bill.

According to the board chairman Jared Kopiyo, the county is spending a lot of money on wages and they are soon going to take action to downsize the bill.

Kopiyo said they are planning to conduct a headcount and payroll audit so that they can ascertain the genuine county government workers.

The county public service board chairman said the board is committed to ensuring that the devolved unit has a payroll system that is above board.

Migori County has over 3000 workers in the payroll.

In 2018, Migori County conducted a workers’ headcount and the report indicated that the county was losing Ksh. 7,545, 643 per month in paying salaries to undeserved individuals.

The report also indicated that a total of 48 county employees who had deserted duties were irregularly taking home salaries amounting to Ksh. 869, 960 per month.

The 2018 report also reveals that eight people who had forged documents were taking home salaries totaling Ksh.318, 500 per month and 856 employees were earning undeserved allowances amounting to Ksh. 2,031,753 monthly.

During the headcount done in 2018, a total of 2615 employees out of the total 3345 were cleared during the exercise that was also aimed at weeding out ghost workers from the county payroll system.