A registration exercise carried out by the Kenyan government on its employees revealed that over 12,000 staff members are being paid as ghost workers, the country's online news site Daily Nation reported.
The controversy was uncovered after a biometric exercise was performed in September to determine the official number of employees included in the government's payroll list. After the registration, only 160,012 employees participated out of the 172,522 names listed in the payroll.
The figure indicates that around 12,500 are receiving compensation from the government by masquerading as employees. An audit report revealed that over $1 million from the state's monthly budget was being allocated to the ghost workers, according to BBC.
In response, President Uhuru Kenyatta presided a cabinet meeting with officials of the Anti-Banking Fraud Unit and Directorate of Criminal Investigations, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Comission to launch an investigation regarding the ghost worker scandal, All Africa reported.
"Cabinet directed the immediate investigations following revelations in the just concluded Human Resource Audit, under the Capacity Assessment and Rationalisation in the Public Service (CARPS) programe, that there were in excess of 12,000 staff who were unaccounted for at conclusion of the exercise," the government said in a press statement.
Anne Waiguru, the Cabinet Secretary for Devolution announced that the over 12,500 individuals who didn't show up for the biometrics exercise have been removed from the government's payroll list.
Kenyatta unveiled the biometrics registration earlier in September as a solution to the corruption allegations plaguing the government, according to a press release from the president's official website.
By requiring all civil servants to participate in the procedure, Kenyatta aims to identify all of the ghost workers.
"With the biometric registration of all public servants, I hope that within a short time we will be able to put to rest the issue of ghost workers on the public service and ensure efficient management of public resources," he said.
