The Treasury will start paying salaries and pensions through an integrated payments system this month to address inefficiencies and curb fraudulent practices in the government payroll.
Ghost Workers
Treasury cabinet secretary John Mbadi said the integrated personnel payroll database sytem which was launched in 1998 will include pensioners. According to him, the move will clean up the government payroll by getting rid of ghost workers and erroneous payments.
“From this month-end we’ll be paying every government official through the system. Even pensioners will get their settlements through the same system so that we clean up duplicates, ghost workers and erroneous payments,” Mbadi said during a meeting with the joint parliamentary committees on Energy and Privatization.
The IPPD system, which was initially used to manage salaries and personnel data for government employees has now been upgraded to handle pension payments too. This modernization of the payment process will streamline government spending and improve accountability.
Ghost Worker Problem
A report by the Public Service Commission (PSC) in January 2025 showed that over 17,000 ghost workers were still benefiting from taxpayer funds in the civil service, down from the previous year’s 20,000 ghost workers.
This is a sign of the inefficiency in managing public sector staffing levels which has led to bloated government payrolls. The PSC report showed that there were 19,467 more employees than the approved staffing levels in various government agencies and departments for the 2022/2023 financial year.
State House and New Kenya Cooperative Creameries Limited had over 100 excess workers each while 15 other organizations had more than 50% excess staff.
Financial Implications of Excess Staff
This has financial implications. Margaret Nyakang’o, the Controller of Budget, has said 70% of Kenya’s national and county government budgets are spent on recurrent expenditures such as salaries. This leaves only about 30% or less for development. We need fiscal reform in this country.
Public Sector Reforms The government’s effort to get rid of excess staff and ghost workers is part of public sector reforms. With better efficiency and resource management the government wants to ensure that taxpayer money is used well and directed towards national development priorities.
As the government starts using the integrated payments system for both salaries and pensions this reform is expected to bring more transparency, efficiency and accountability in public service. The IPPD system will monitor and validate payments and ensure that only eligible workers and pensioners are paid.
This is a big step towards improving the public sector’s financial health and using government funds for all Kenyans.