Taita Taveta County to carry out audit to weed out impostors

Taita Taveta Governor Andrew Mwadime. [Jenipher Wachie, Standard]

Taita Taveta County is planning to audit its payroll to weed out ghost workers and those with fake academic papers.

Governor Andrew Mwadime Wednesday said that a recent headcount revealed that some employees had fake academic papers.

He claimed that some of the workers employed by the last administration were sabotaging his development agenda.

"The wage bill has badly affected service delivery. There are many county staff who do not know what they are doing for this county. Some were employed with fake academic qualifications, and the human resource audit county will rid the county of a bloated workforce," he said.

Mwadime noted that revenue collection had drastically reduced by 13 per cent.

"I have witnessed a downward trend in revenue. I warn those with fake receipt books that their days are numbered" he warned.

He added: "There are some workers who are not loyal to me and they do not believe that I am the governor of Taita-Taveta County.

I know such disloyal staff are being used by my opponents to destabilise my administration. Let me tell them that they should either be loyal to the government of the day or else they will be sacked," warned Mwadime.

At the same time, Mwadime has lifted a four-year ban on bus companies entering Voi town.

Mwadime lifted the ban due to a drastic drop in revenue.

The ban was imposed in 2019 by former Governor Granton Samboja following a disagreement with bus companies on entry levy.

Mwadime said since the ban was imposed, there has been a remarkable drop in revenue.

He did not indicate whether he had removed the Voi town entry fee or will engage the bus firms to come up with an agreeable levy. "From today I have lifted the ban and those bus companies affected should now start entering the town," he said.

Meanwhile, County Commissioner Loyford Kibaara has challenged the county administration to embrace a cashless system to boost revenue collection.

The administrator said using digital revenue collection system is the only way to eliminate theft of public funds.