Africa-Press – Kenya. Lamu Governor Issa Timamy has slammed the immediate former governor Fahim Twaha for over-employing county staff beyond what is legally required.
Timamy, who was sworn in on Thursday, expressed frustration over the overstretched county wage bill, a situation he says has plunged the outgoing devolved government regime into spending more on salaries and personal benefits while leaving very little for development.
The governor admonished his predecessor for pumping most of the county cash into paying salaries. He noted with concern that almost 60 per cent of the current total Lamu budget was being spent on paying staff salaries, which is beyond the limits of the public finance law.
He described the former regime as having immersed itself into an outrageous hiring spree, a situation that has seen the region miss out on meaningful development.
The situation, Timamy says, is contrary to the Public Finance Management Regulations Bill 2015 which requires that employees pay should not exceed 35 per cent of revenue allocated.
“Records show there was abnormal recruitment of county staff, which led to over-employment. They have used close to 60 per cent of revenue allocated on salaries alone. They contravened the Public Finance Management Regulations of 2015 by close to 25 per cent,” Timamy said.
Timamy also noted that the current ballooning of the county wage bill was as a result of unnecessary hiring of county employees.
“Now that I am in office, I will ensure things are done transparently and following the right procedure,” Timamy said.
“Lamu municipality alone, for instance, has over 80 employees. Some are paid salaries for no services rendered. I suspect majority of these number don’t exist, they are ghost workers, ” he said.
During the unveiling of the third Human Resource Audit Report, 2022 in May, the Lamu County Public Service Board unearthed at least 112 ghost workers enjoying salaries from the county government.
Such situations are believed to be part of the reasons behind the overstretched county wage bill.
Lamu county has over 1,500 staff.
In his response, the immediate former Lamu governor Fahim Twaha admitted that his administration had been spending more on paying staff salaries.
He however defended himself, saying that half of the county wage bill consists of emoluments to medical staff after they successfully negotiated higher salaries after a prolonged nationwide strike.
Twaha said he was aware that the law requires the county to spend 30 per cent on development, adding that his administration had invested a big portion of their development budget in establishing dispensaries and nursery schools.
Edited by Henry Makori
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