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'Ghost workers': Kenya biometric register launched | |
(about 3 hours later) | |
Kenya has started biometrically registering all civil servants in an attempt to remove "ghost workers" from the government's payroll. | Kenya has started biometrically registering all civil servants in an attempt to remove "ghost workers" from the government's payroll. |
Employees who failed to register over the next two weeks would no longer be paid, a government statement said. | Employees who failed to register over the next two weeks would no longer be paid, a government statement said. |
The government suspects that thousands of people continue to receive salaries after leaving the civil service. | The government suspects that thousands of people continue to receive salaries after leaving the civil service. |
President Uhuru Kenyatta was the first person to register - he has pledged to curb corruption. | President Uhuru Kenyatta was the first person to register - he has pledged to curb corruption. |
'Waste of time' | |
"It is in your best interest that you get registered lest you are counted as a ghost worker," he told civil servants in the coastal city of Mombasa. | "It is in your best interest that you get registered lest you are counted as a ghost worker," he told civil servants in the coastal city of Mombasa. |
An audit earlier this year found that at least $1m (£600,000) a month was lost in payments to "ghost workers", as well as other financial irregularities. | |
All public servants were required to present themselves over the next two weeks at identification centres to ensure their data was captured through the biometric registration exercise, a government statement said. | |
Anyone who failed to do so without a valid excuse would be eliminated from the payroll, it said. | Anyone who failed to do so without a valid excuse would be eliminated from the payroll, it said. |
At one centre in Nairobi, the BBC's Paul Nabiswa says officials were recording identity details, taking fingerprints and verifying educational qualifications before issuing civil servants with a slip as proof that they had been cleared. | |
He says reaction to the scheme has been mixed. | |
"This is a waste of time," Nairobi council worker Henry Okello told the BBC. | |
"People will not be working, they will be lining up up to the last day of the exercise. They know where we sit - why don't they come to count us physically?" he asked. |