Nairobi City Governor Mike Sonko has issued a stern warning to lazy county employees, that he will not hesitate to dismiss them should they steal the county’s precious time.
Speaking on Wednesday at City Hall when he officially launched the biometric staff management system that will ensure it records the time employees report to work and leave work and the amount of time spent at work.
This is in a bid to maximize the employees’ output and also weed out ghost workers from the county payroll.
Sonko said a section of Nairobi City County employees had become corrupt by giving minimum time at work and instead spend their productive hours doing private business.
The biometric system will help flag employees that fail to show up or who spend very few hours at work and the Human Resources department will take appropriate action.
“Anyone found to be absenting themselves from work without good reason will face disciplinary action, including dismissal. I will have no mercy on staff who steal the County Government’s time. Kanjo mentality must come to an end,” he said.
He ordered all heads of departments to make use of the new biometric system and act firmly on their subordinates who fail to report to work.
The system also comes with name tags that will be mandatory for all staff to wear.
“Security officers must know who staff are, who visitors are and who clients are. City Hall and City Hall Annex are not places for idlers and brokers, but for genuine clients seeking services. In the age of security threats and terrorism, identification badges are mandatory.”
The biometric system and badges must be rolled out to all sub-counties as well, he ordered.
Sonko also directed the Public Service Management Sector to initiate a scheme to reward those who meet their targets and serve Nairobians well.
He said staff appraisal must be taken seriously to weed out those who do not deliver.
“Let us all re-dedicate ourselves to build Nairobi to be the city of choice to invest, work and live in.”
Speaking at the event, Deputy County Secretary and Public Service Management Chief Officer Morintat Leboo noted that with the new system, the Human Resource department will be able to keep track of all the staff, attend to their requests on the employee self service module and also assist in leave management.
“With the new biometric system the general public will be able to verify genuine county staff before engaging in any transaction by sending an SMS containing the Employee Number to a short code provided. This will aid us in minimizing cases of staff imposters and fraud,” he stated.
