PSC raises concern over delay to appoint parastatal boards, CEOs

Kenya; The Public Service Commission (PSC) has raised concern over delay in naming chief executives of parastatals.

The commission now wants a law to curb the period within which State corporations can remain without substantive leadership. According to a report released by PSC in December last year, 15 State corporations did not have boards for a considerable length of time, jeopardising critical roles.

This was largely attributed to ongoing reforms that saw release of a raft of recommendations including merging and subsequent closure of about 75 parastatals.

“Although this was attributed to anticipated reforms in State corporations, performance of their roles was always in jeopardy since boards exercise critical responsibilities in the entities,” the report says. “Prolonged absence of functional boards may lead to adverse consequences.”

Most parastatals have either acting or no Chief Executive Officers (CEOs), chairpersons or board of directors at all.

Those that lack functional CEOs include Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), Kenya Forest Service (KFS), Constituency Development Fund Board, the Rural Electrification Authority (REA) and the Urban Roads Authority.

At the same time, the terms of service for most executives in regional offices expired in 2013 and 2014 respectively but they remain in office pending renewal of their contracts.

Public Service Commission Chairperson Margaret Kobia, in an earlier interview, admitted that some parastatals are operating without crucial leadership pending implementation of the reforms.

Prof Kobia blames delays in restructuring on two pending bills--Government Owned Entities Bill 2014 (GOE) and the National Sovereign Wealth Fund Bill 2014—that must be passed by Parliament.

“Some do not have directors, CEOs or proper boards. But this has been occasioned by the two pending bills...I cannot tell how long it will take before they are passed to law since the National Assembly is on recess,” she said.

The report dated December 2014 now recommends that, appointing authorities should avoid a leadership vacuum in State corporations for long periods.

Meanwhile, a significantly low number of public servants undertook performance appraisals in the financial year 2013/2014.

This, according to the report, made it difficult for the over 77,000 officers to be held accountable for their actions during the period under review.

At the same time, out of 288 Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) in National Government’s public service that signed performance contracts, none of them achieved all targets.

“Data availed by the Commission on ministries and departments established that out of 77,129 officers, only 25,886 (33.6 per cent) were assessed and that only 15 per cent of ministries/departments carried out performance appraisals for all their staff. The remaining 85 per cent of ministries and departments appraised a section of staff or none,” the report reads in part.

In the category of State Corporations, the report states, 38,884 officers out of the total 69,196 had their performance evaluated.

“The realisation of the principle of accountability depends to a large extent on performance appraisal systems that hold persons who are assigned responsibilities to account for delivery of service. The low level of staff appraisal indicates a situation where majority of public officers are not held accountable," the report says.

The report, however, notes that despite most government agencies failing to meet their targets, there were isolated cases where all targets in core functions were achieved.

This was in four ministries, 55 State corporations and six other National Government agencies, which together represent 22.6 per cent of the MDAs.

Kobia said government ministries and state departments must focus on getting individual performance of employees to improve overall service delivery.

“Performance appraisal is definitely an area of concern. We should focus on getting individual performance of individuals because assessing only 34 per cent of staff in ministries and departments is worrying,” she said.

Kobia is confident that with the introduction of a policy that gives Cabinet powers to hire, promote, transfer and fire employees under their respective ministries, the numbers are expected.

“Moving forward, The President will hold Cabinet Secretaries accountable, while CSs will hold Permanent Secretaries accountable. PSs should consequently be responsible for their staff. We therefore expect see 100 per cent appraisal of staff.”

She, however, explained that failure by MDAs to meet targets was majorly occasioned by high set goals.