• Sacking letters no salary from October; every stolen shilling must be paid back.
• Angry workers threatened to damage property and disrupt operations. Friends and cronies got jobs.
Image: BY MATHEWS NDANYI
At least 1,800 employees of Nandi county have received sacking letters as Governor Stephen Sang implements a human resource audit that revealed a massive, costly payroll.
The letters seen by the Star indicate the workers were irregularly issued with appointment letters and their details were entered into the county payroll in an irregular manner without regard to provisions in Section 66 of the County Governments Act.
“Subsequently, by the powers conferred upon the County Public Service Board by Section 75 of the County Governments Act, 2012, the termination said their letter of appointment is hereby revoked on account of irregularity,” the termination said.
The issuance of the sacking letters has sparked anger and fear among the workers some of whom have threatened to protest and paralyse county operations this week.
Governor Sang said he won’t spare even his own relatives or friends who may have illegally gotten jobs in the massive payroll scam.
The governor said he will fully implement a human resource audit report, which revealed the rot in the county payroll that caused an increase of workers to more than 5,000.
“I will not cherry pick which part of the report to implement. We will implement the HR report 100 per cent and I am not going back on this so that we clean up this mess once and for all,” Sang said.
He said anyone who engaged in criminal acts or illegalities would be dealt with by the law.
“If it's relatives of the governor, the county executives or anyone else, they will face the full force of the law because criminals are just that, regardless of whoever they are related to,” Sang said.
He said he was the one who called for the HR audit in the county and hence he is the whistleblower on the scam.
Sang said much of the county resources that would have gone to development were held up in a huge wage bill and the current clean-up of the payroll would help to free up the resources and professionalise the public services.
The governor termed as criminal any threats by some of the workers to disrupt county operations next week in protest against the ongoing purge.
He said even though about 1,800 workers had received termination letters, the county still had about 3,200 employees who would remain on duty along with volunteers.
“There will be normal services but anyone who will try to disrupt county services will be engaging in criminality and will thus equally face the full force of the law, Sang said,
The governor said anyone with complaints about the entire process should follow procedures to forward their issues but warned them against interfering with county operations.
Sang said he did not issue any instructions authorising illegal employment of workers because he has no role in hiring except for positions of county executives, chief officers and advisers.
The governor said those doubting his commitment to implement the report would be proved wrong because he would go all the way to ensure those who earned any money illegally will have to pay back.
“I want to assure the people of Nandi that by the time we are through with this process we will have a fully professional, efficient and responsive and legally constituted public service to serve the people of Nandi,” Sang said.
Names of the affected workers had been irregularly entered into the county payroll but they have been expunged and they will not earn salaries starting from this month of October.
The move follows a human resource audit in the county by the Public Service Commission, which revealed the major payroll scam. The commission sent the letters.
Hundreds of people, mostly cronies and relatives of top county officials, were illegally issued with employment letters and their names entered into the county payroll.
Two weeks ago, while announcing the findings, Sang suspended several payroll officers to allow for investigations into alleged irregularities to continue smoothly in the payroll management system.
The county should have not more than 3,000 workers and Auditor General Nancy Gathungu has been raising queries over irregular employment by the county.
The audit was done by a technical team from the Public Service Commission.
Among its finding is that some individuals in the Nandi County Public Service Board and the payroll unit have been colluding to issue irregular and fake appointment letters.
“All these irregularities led to issuance of fake appointment letters obtained through fraudulent means and which found their way into the payroll system,” Sang said.
Using the fake documents, including fake certificates, there was haphazard placement of employees in job groups and questionable promotions.