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The County Government of Nyamira has instituted disciplinary action against 324 employees found with  either fake academic certificates or have been illegally promoted

Addressing journalists  in his office on Friday , Governor Amos Nyaribo said the county was losing Sh4.5 million annually through irregular promotions and forged certificates.

Nyaribo said out of the county’s workforce of 4,100, 245 workers had irregularly earned promotions while 79 had secured jobs using fake certificates.

He said the government had presented the first batch of 2,800 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education certificates to the Kenya National Examinations Council for verification and 76 were found to be fake.

“The 2,800 post-secondary education certificates were also under scrutiny by various colleges across the country. So far, three cases of forged diploma and degree certificates had been reported”, he said.

“Among the discrepancies that were noted by the KNEC included alteration of mean grades, changing of subject scores and inconsistent examination centre codes. In some cases, the index numbers in the certificates did not belong to the officers while others replaced names on certificates with theirs,” Nyaribo told journalists.

Nyaribo expressed shock that the Department of Health led in the number of employees with fake academic credentials, where 24 cases were reported.

Departments of Finance and Public Service Management had the second highest number of employees with questionable papers with each recording 13 cases.

Nyaribo confirmed that the county had notified the affected staff and was now moving to stop their salaries.

The County had also started disciplinary action against the irregularly promoted staff.

“ Immediate stoppage of salaries for the 79 individuals, with letters of notification have already been dispatched to them, disciplinary and administrative action against the staff has been initiated” he added ..

Nyaribo said that the report will be forwarded to the DCI and Ethics and EACC for further action.

 The second batch of academic certificates will be submitted to KNEC and middle level colleges next week for verification.  Further, administrative action on irregular promotions will be effected this month against 245 staff  when the County Public  Service Board completes compiling the report.