This archive report was first published on 29 November 2019.
Published on November 29, 2019, a shocking revelation emerged in Vihiga county assembly, where members discovered that dead people were still earning salaries from the county payroll.
The assembly was grilling the executive over the irregular employment of health staff, which led to the sacking of over 308 medics by Governor Wilber Ottichilo.
County human resource director Millicent Akinyi, CECM in-charge of health Amos Kutwa, and chief officer public health Arnold Mamadi appeared before the assembly ad hoc committee to shed light on the irregular employment of health staff.
However, public service county minister Paul Mbuni and acting county secretary Philip Gavuna skipped the grilling, claiming they were busy.
During the interrogation, the committee was shocked when the health department gave contracting figures of total health staff, with the numbers given by the HR director Akinyi totaling 1892 staff.
CEC health Kutwa disclosed that the health department had 798 staff, after the numbers reduced from 822 when Ottichilo took over, due to staff deaths, retirements, and resignations.
The assembly wondered where the HR director Akinyi had drawn the huge figure of 1892 workers.
It was revealed that the county department of health had 1094 ghost workers earning from the county coffers, with full protection of the county public service and administration, county HR director, and acting county secretary.
The HR director was unable to convince the committee why some people were appearing on the county payroll and yet they had died, retired, or left the county.
Efforts by Governor Ottichilo to fight ghost workers in the county were proving fruitless, as the numbers of ghost workers earning from county coffers continued to swell.
It was alleged that there was a cartel sneaking ghost workers onto the county payroll, under payroll manager Adeline M'maitsi, to fleece the county.
Ottichilo was fighting a huge county wage bill, as his staff who bragged about pocketing him continued to draw millions of shillings from the county coffers.
According to sources, the department of health and trade had huge numbers of ghost workers, where the county lost Sh100 million monthly to pay the ghost staff.
A few months ago, some county staff working in the payroll section were arrested for sneaking ghost workers onto the payroll, but they had not been prosecuted.
Sources disclosed that those arrested threatened to spill the beans if prosecuted, forcing the major culprits to stop preferring charges against them.
Public service committee chair Gladys Analo said it was total injustice for the culprits who messed up the entire process of hiring health workers to continue holding their offices.
