Lamu wages war on ghost workers

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Lamu Governor Fahim Twaha. The governor plans on tappinh into the waters of River Tana to provide fresh water for the county./COURTESY

Lamu, KENYA: The county government of Lamu has opted not renew contracts of all county staff in what is seen as a strategy to weed out ghost workers.

Lamu Governor Fahim Twaha admitted that the county has been losing huge sums of money paid to unknown individuals for non-existent jobs in the county.

Speaking when he presided over an induction event for newly hired medical staff at the King Fahad Hospital on Wednesday afternoon,Twaha said the situation was straining the county’s finances and swore to have the matter resolved before any new contracts are signed.

He said the county was currently scrutinizing all county staff payrolls so as to determine genuine staff from the ghost workers.

Twaha says the payroll scrutiny cuts to all county departments.

Many of those employed by the county government have either expired their contracts or are close to reaching the end of their contracts.

Twaha however said no single contract shall be renewed at the moment and called for calm from all those whose contracts have expired.

The governor however assured them that their contracts shall be renewed before the end of November this year.

“We have ascertained the existence of ghost workers who have amassed millions in salaries for no apparent work done. At the moment, we are trying to sift through records and find out who these ghost workers are. Our officials are on the right track so far. Only after records have been cleared can we then renew expired contracts otherwise, all affected staff should kindly bear with us as we deal with this. Hopefully by close of November we will be clear,” said Twaha.

The governor also raised alarm over cartels in the health sector who have been stealing drugs and other supplies from county hospitals and selling them to outside facilities.

“We are aware of the cartels who have been stealing from our hospitals to either stock up private facilities or sell to others out there. We are midway with our investigations and soon we shall have those guilty fired and prosecuted,” said Twaha.

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