Overview
Kenya's government payroll has consistently included "ghost workers": employees who exist on the books and are paid salaries but do not actually work or do not work for the government. Audits have identified tens of thousands of ghost workers costing the government billions of shillings annually. The practice represents a systematic transfer of public resources from legitimate service delivery to private accounts, similar to patterns in Education Sector Corruption and health services.
Scale and Identification
The Office of the Auditor General has identified over 40,000 ghost workers on government payrolls in multiple investigations over the past decade. Some were identified in the civil service (teachers, health workers, police officers). Others were identified in parastatals and county governments.
The discovery process usually follows a pattern: (1) an audit finds discrepancies between salary payments and staff attendance records, (2) investigators attempt to locate the individuals on the payroll, (3) many cannot be found, (4) investigations reveal that some names are duplicates, some individuals are deceased, and some have never worked for the government.
Mechanisms of Creation
Ghost workers are created through several mechanisms: (1) death fraud, where officials continue to claim salaries for deceased employees while pocketing the money, (2) leave fraud, where employees take extended leave but continue to receive salaries through collusion with supervisors, (3) registration fraud, where human resources officials create fictitious employee records and claim salaries for people who never existed, (4) duplicate records, where the same person is registered twice and collects two salaries.
In large government agencies, the scale creates plausible deniability. When an agency employs thousands of workers, some wage theft can be attributed to administrative error rather than deliberate fraud.
Supervisory Collusion
Ghost workers cannot persist without collusion from supervisory staff. A government agency's payroll officer and his supervisor agree: payroll will include a ghost position, the salary is drawn monthly, and they split the proceeds. The supervisor is typically not at the agency constantly, making the arrangement hard to detect.
This collusion extends up the chain. A departmental head or permanent secretary may have a relationship with private businesspeople who are listed as ghost workers. The businessman never comes to the office but receives a salary. The departmental head receives a kickback.
Specific Sectors
Teachers ghost workers were particularly prevalent in the 2000s. Teachers Service Commission payrolls included names of individuals who did not teach at any school. Some investigations revealed that fictional teachers were registered in rural schools that were themselves under-staffed and under-resourced.
Health sector ghost workers included nurses, clinical officers, and administrators on Ministry of Health payrolls who never showed up for duty. When community members came to health facilities for care, they found no staff present while funds were paid for absent workers.
Police force ghost workers included officers supposedly assigned to police stations who did not exist. Their uniforms and equipment allowances were diverted. The impact was felt in understaffed police stations.
Financial Impact
Each ghost worker costs approximately KES 40,000 to KES 100,000 monthly in salary. With 40,000 ghost workers identified, the annual cost to government is approximately KES 20 billion. The actual figure may be higher if many ghost workers remain undetected.
Political Response
When ghost workers are discovered, the government responds with audits and promises of reform. Names of individuals responsible for the fraud are sometimes announced. But prosecutions rarely follow. Individuals involved typically retire with their illicit gains or are transferred to other government positions where they continue the practice.
Accountability mechanisms are weak because the investigation and prosecution system is itself staffed by government employees who may be implicated in similar fraud.
See Also
- Moi Era Corruption Economy
- Kibaki Era Corruption
- Public Procurement Corruption
- Impunity Culture
- Auditor General Role
- Civil Service Salaries and Petty Corruption
- Kenyatta Era Corruption