Taita,Taveta,KENYA:The County government of Taita Taveta might be forced to do a staff rationalization to curb the soaring wage-bill that has seen some of the staff go for months without pay.
This is according to the governor, Granton Samboja who said that the wages take upto to 60% of the county revenue hence exerting pressure on the county to raise more revenue.
There are over 1100 casuals and 1400 permanent and pensionable staff and that has seen the county spend over ksh180-ksh190M in salaries monthly.
Samboja who was speaking in Wundayi on Thursday during a performance contract appraisal exercise that is ongoing said that the decision was reached at after the senate raised concerns on the huge wagebill in the county.
“We use 190 million to pay salaries every month. We are reaching a point where I think we will be forced to trim the work force,” Samboja said.
However Samboja said that the county was working towards sealing loopholes where the revenue was being lost.
“Following new measures of curbing corruption within different sectors especially the revenue department, several government staff have been found issuing of fake licenses which has costed to county overs sh1.3M” he added.
Samboja said the suspected government officers found engaging into corruption especially on revenues will be sacked and taken to court.
However, the governor said since he took over of the government he has managed to record increase of revenue collection from ksh170M to ksh202M after putting measures of collecting revenue.
