Governor Gladys Wanga, Price Water House Coopers partner Simon Mutinda and DG Oyugi Magwanga during the handover of the audit report. [James Omoro, Standard]

Some 1, 786 ghost workers have been earning salaries from Homa Bay County payroll, an audit report has revealed.

According to the report, the lakeside county's government has lost about Sh300m to ghost workers, who include minors employed at the age of 16.

The revelations come following a payroll and personnel census audit that was conducted by Prince Water House Coopers (PWC) on November 21, 2023.

The report was handed over to Homa Bay Governor Gladys Wanga on Thursday, August 24.

Wanga released the report to the public through a media briefing.

The report indicated that 556 people did not present any appointment letters or any other key employment documents.

The ghost workers included 479 people who are in the payroll but cannot be traced to the signed human resources departmental lists.

Some 287 individuals did not appear at all for verification of the workers during the physical counting exercise.

A total of 129 individuals had no files in the county registry. They also did not present any relevant documents during the audit.

There is also another category of 322 individuals who lack appropriate academic qualifications. These people include those who lack practice licenses issued by the respective professional bodies they claim to belong to. They also include people who had fake Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) certificates for completing secondary education.

This group also comprised individuals who claimed to have studied in some universities and colleges but the institutions dismissed the authenticity of their certificates.

Ten of them were caught while producing fake certificates in cyber cafes in Homa Bay town.

The workers have been earning salaries of various amounts totalling to more than Sh300m annually.

Wanga who was accompanied by her Deputy Oyugi Magwanga, County Secretary Benard Muok and PWC partner Simon Mutinda said they are going to implement recommendations of the report which encompasses removing them from the payroll.

The Governor said it is unfortunate for the ghost workers to earn public funds which they do not deserve.

She said proper implementation of the report will enable the county government to save more than Sh300m annually.

"The way forward is that we are going to implement this report and this will enable us to save public funds of over Sh300m. Our objective is to offer good services to the people," Wanga said.