The menace of ghost workers in the civil service at the national and county levels has been with us for a while as highlighted by oversight agencies and the Public Service Commission.
The grand question, however, is why this problem never gets solved, despite the concerned agencies having information on persons who are unjustifiably earning salaries from the exchequer.
The PSC report indicates these mystery workers are 17,000 and may have just dropped slightly by 2,000, considering the numbers that were highlighted in the previous report.
But by the time the government has a specific number, it means they know who these persons are, begging the question of why it is taking the authorities forever to resolve this mess.
The authorities must rise to the occasion and put an end to this drain on taxpayers’ hard-earned cash.
Any accounting officer whose institution has ghost workers should be directed to get rid of them or be surcharged for what we lose to these unscrupulous individuals.
That we know the number and how it has changed over the years yet nothing has been done significantly, leaves a lot to be desired.
Action should be taken against the responsible agencies to stop people from earning what they don’t deserve.
The individuals who are benefiting from the mess should be traced and the proceeds of their misdeeds restored to the state.
We need to punish the ghost workers – who I believe are known by their sponsors - by recovering the amounts they have taken for no work done. Without drastic action against accounting officers, at county and national government levels, this will remain an endless song as service delivery takes a dip.
The PSC should do more than just highlighting, but should also recommend hefty punishments for perpetrators so that people reap only where they have sown.
It is doable. We need the commitment of all parties as these people rake in billions of shillings every financial year, contributing to the huge wage bill the country is grappling with.
Uriri MP spoke to Star