County on the spot over questionable papers in staff hiring procedure

Nakuru, Kenya: The Public Service Board in Nakuru County is on the spot over irregularities in the process of employing staff.

It has emerged that the board short-listed some candidates for the posts of directors and county administrators who either had criminal records or questionable academic qualifications.

According to documents in possession of The Standard, two applicants short-listed for the position of county administrators did not have the required qualifications and another was being sought by police over a crime he committed in his previous employment.

The two, Geoffrey Kioko and Eric Ogada, are also accused by their former employer, Ministry of Local Government, of forging transfer letters and promotion in a letter written to the interim county transition secretary.

Disregard contents

“We have verified our records on two promotions and transfers of P/NO.1851 Geoffrey Kioko and P/NO.1872 Eric Ogada and are not in our records hence did not originate from this office,” reads the letter signed by Sally Tanui for the Permanent Secretary.

“You are advised to disregard contents of the letters and initiate investigations on the same with a view to having the culprits brought to book,” reads the letter.

Ms Tanui said the promotion letters which purports to have been done in December 2012 are non-existent but the file reference belonged to Municipal Council of Embu.

“Both the two promotion letters C/130823.IV (95) and C/130823.IV (96) dated December 24, 2012 respectively are not in our records and the file reference belongs to the municipal council of Embu and the current running volume is C/130823.III. The public service commission reference letter quoted being the authority for promotions i.e PSC/45 dated November 2012 is not in our records,” reads the letter.

A senior official at the county government has confirmed that the governor was informed of the raging controversy at the board and had already acted by rejecting the list presented to him for appointment twice.

“We have seen those documents and allegations raised against the board. The appointments have been stopped for verification of the documents presented by the applicants,” said the official who did not want to be named.