Nairobi County has purged 500 ghost workers from its payroll in the last three months, Governor Evans Kidero has said July 12, 2013. FILE
By LUCAS BARASA lbarassa@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Friday, July 12 2013 at 10:15
Posted Friday, July 12 2013 at 10:15
Nairobi County has purged 500 ghost workers from its payroll in the last three months, Governor Evans Kidero has said.
In an interview with Nation online in his office, Dr Kidero said a computerisation project was underway to get rid of the other 2,500 ghost workers.
“A third of the county workers are ghost workers,” Dr Kidero said Friday.
It is suspected retired, deceased or even non-existent staff are kept on the payroll fraudulently by officials who pocket their salaries.
Dr Kidero cited the Sh53 billion debt inherited from the City Council of Nairobi and changing the workers attitude as other challenges facing his administration.
The county is also battling street lights vandals and is striving to end the culture of corruption.
The government was however happy that the city is now clean and more staff have been deployed to Pumwani Maternity Hospital and ambulances provided by well-wishers including DT Dobie, Simba Colt Motors and Chase Bank.
A number of roads construction works are also complete easing traffic flow within the city.
Dr Kidero said the county was now collecting more than Sh570 million up from Sh300 million monthly three months ago due to intense war on graft and sealing loopholes.
He, however, said the Sh570 million is still below the city’s revenue potential that stands at Sh2 billion a month.
Dr Kidero said the Kenya Audit Office is to look into the county’s debts and determine whether services were delivered.
“We will also go after those who owe us money to increase our collection,” Dr Kidero said.
The governor said the monthly clean-up campaign that was launched by President Kenyatta at Huruma Estate will be held throughout the city on the last Saturday of the month, with Kibera the main highlight.
Litter streets
Institutions have also been urged to join in the clean up campaign and residents urged to avoid littering the streets or urinating on walls to restore the city’s lost glory as green city in the sun.
Dr Kidero said he would work to ensure provision of services in city, restore security and order and attract investments in a county where six out of 10 people live in informal settlements.
He said 250,000 new houses are required and that he had approached financiers and other institutions to assist in developing low cost units.
The governor said out of a demand of 640,000 cubic metres of water, the county only received 500,000 cubic metres of which only 300,000 cubic metres is accounted for due to leakages.
“We will reduce the leakage and provide more water to residents,” Dr Kidero said.
He regretted that water in the informal settlements in the city cost 20 times more.
“We aim to reduce the cost to people who are formally supplied,” he said.
Fight crime
The county will further boost the capacity of its inspectorate department to work hand in hand with police in the fight against crime.
He said a four year project to digitise security surveillance was underway and that the Central Business District will be covered in December. The second phase will target hot spots before moving to rest of the county including residential areas.
Dr Kidero said his government will further work with partners to construct bypasses and open links to ease traffic, revamp the rail transport system and construct a new rail line to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.
He said the county government wants 200,000 passengers who use train services monthly in the four routes in Nairobi increased to 500,000.
He said heavy trucks will only be allowed to use certain corridors and defaulters handled heavy penalties.
Dr Kidero said one secondary school will be built for every two primary schools.
He said he will also initiate programmes to attract investments with a view to creating employment for thousands of youth.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment