Perform or face the axe, civil servants warned

Civil servants who fail to perform will not be entertained, Public Service Commission Chair Prof Margaret Kobia has warned.

The civil service boss issued the stern warning yesterday during the launch of the commission’s annual report that captures incidents of heightened disciplinary control in various ministries.

“It will not be business as usual for poor performers,” Kobia warned.

This comes at a time when the country is grappling with a ballooning wage bill with at least Sh1.8 billion lost to ghost workers annually.

Recently, the government announced that over 12,500 government employees believed to be ghost workers were struck off the payroll pending investigations.

According to the report released earlier this week, the commission received 400 disciplinary cases out of which 69 officers were dismissed from the service.

Further, appeals of 180 officers were rejected, 21 were accepted while 13 recommendations from authorised officers were equally overruled.

“Of the 430 cases received, 375 (87 per cent) cases were finalised while 55 (13 per cent) were forwarded to the 2014/2015 financial year,” the report states in part.

“...69 officers were dismissed from the service, 9 officers retired from the service in public interest, 21 appeals were allowed and 180 disallowed, 9 applications for review were allowed and 335 were disallowed while 13 authorised officers’ recommendations were rejected,” the report states. Kobia (pictured) said the 180 officers whose appeal to remain in the service was rejected remain sacked.

According to the report, there was another 136 cases filed in court challenging the commission’s decision to discipline public officers.

But the commission notes that delay in determination of such cases by courts has continued to affect resource planning and an increased strain on the budget in case of reinstatement.

As part of the stringent measures, the government opted to freeze recruitment in the Public Service which has been captured in the report.

During 2013/2014 financial year, the commission that is an employer to 240,000 employees, hired 240 extra staff. A total of 183 employees were separately appointed under delegated powers under the period under review.

The commission also administered promotional exams while over 4,000 officers were sponsored for various training programmes to equip them with requisite skills and competencies.

In the year, 638 officers retired from the service, 95 resigned, 196 were dismissed as mentioned above while 776 others left under unclear circumstances.

But despite the milestones, Kobia agrees that the commission still faces challenges key among them being inadequate funding and high staff turnover among professional cadres.